The Mumbai’s Esplanade Court on Sunday ordered to conduct an ossification test of one of the two arrested accused in NCP leader Baba Siddique’s murder case, Dharmraj Singh Kashyap, after it was claimed that he was a minor.
The court while holding off his police custody, ordered for the ossification test to determine his age. The defence lawyer produced the accused’s Aadhaar Card in court which had 2003 as the birth year. Though it meant that he is 19 years old.
It has claimed that the Aadhaar Card doesn’t have appropriate details. The identity card has name of Ranjan Kumar Sharma, but has the picture of the accused.
An ossification test is a medical procedure that estimates a person’s age by analyzing the degree of fusion of their bones. It’s a popular method for determining age.
Police were directed to produce the second accused again after conducting the test. The court will then decide if proceedings against him will be conducted at a juvenile court or the regular court. Meanwhile, the other accused, Gurmail Baljit Singh, a native of Haryana, to seven-day police custody till October 21.
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch, who is probing the case sought the remand of the accused duo for 14 days, saying they needed to investigate if there was any international link involved.
The person killed was not any ordinary person, but a former minister. Despite security, the assailants managed to shoot him. We need to find out the intention and motive behind the crime, the prosecution said.
Police need to probe if any political rivalry was involved in the shooting, public prosecutor Gautam Gaikwad told the court.
Advocate Sidharth Agarwal, appearing for both the accused, contended that the crime was “very sad and disheartening”, but the role of the accused is not established. He (Siddique) might have been killed due to a political rivalry and the two accused were falsely implicated in the case, the lawyer argued.
Mumbai Police Crime Branch DCP Datta Nalawade said that it is probing all angles in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case and said the angles of Lawrence Bishnoi and Salman Khan along with other angles are also being probed. They were also verifying a social media post in which an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang has taken responsibility for the murder, police said.
The other two accused, who are still absconding have also been identified–Shiva Kumar alias Shiv Kumar Gautam, who fired at Siddique and Mohammed Zeeshan Ansari, who helped the other three assailants conduct recce of Siddique’s house, and provided the road map.
The police said that have recovered two pistols from both the accused. The accused had brought pepper spray, first, the accused were about to spray and then they were about to fire but the third accused Shiv Kumar Gautam started firing directly. Three constables were with Baba Siddiqui and at the time of the incident also three constables were there but they could not do anything. One more person has been injured in this firing.
“There were three people at the spot of incidence. Two have been caught and one is absconding… 15 teams of the Crime Branch are on the job… The angles of Lawrence Bishnoi, Salman Khan or any other angle is being investigated…”
Baba Siddique, former Maharashtra minister and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) leader, was shot dead in a targeted attack by three assailants who fired six rounds at him in Mumbai’s Bandra East on Saturday.
The incident happened around 9:30 PM outside his son Zeeshan Siddiqui’s office, where the attackers, with their faces covered, exited their car and opened fire. Two of the bullets struck Siddique in the chest. Despite being rushed to Lilavati Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival.
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