Baba Siddique shot dead: Shooters deployed tear gas as diversion

The three shooters linked to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had been waiting behind a tempo near NCP leader and former MLA Baba Siddiquersquos parked car on Saturday aiming to kill him at pointblank range in Bandra East After allegedly using a smoke bomb to obscure visibility they executed their plan despite heavy police deployment for a nearby religious procession The police failed to gather intelligence about the life threat to Siddique who was shot twice in the chest just five minutes after the zonal DCP had left the areaThis situation starkly illustrates a significant intelligence failure on the part of law enforcement Despite the police presence their inability to anticipate or respond to the threat against Siddique raises serious questions about the effectiveness of their operations to keep the city safeThe Childrenrsquos Complex where one of the shooters was hidingThe heavy police deployment was organised to ensure the smooth running of a religious procession An officer attached to Nirmal Nagar police told midday that the shooters were clever enough to camouflage the sound of gunshots with firecrackers ldquoIt was an alarming tactic by the shooters of a wellorganised gangrdquo the officer saidThe timingmdashjust five minutes after highranking officials had departedmdashsuggests a concerning gap in situational awarenessSmoke bombAn insider in the Siddique family told midday that the killers had used a smoke bomb to exploit the visual coverldquoThey are contract killers who had conducted a recce of the area before assassinating Siddique The timing of their nefarious act is very crucial These shooters seemed undeterred by the police presence as Siddique was killed in a place where many PIs APIs PSIs constables and head constables were stationed for the bandobast organised for the religious processionrdquo said the insider in the Siddique familyldquoThe killers threw a smoke bomb around him to limit visibility in the areardquo the insider informed midday ldquoExploiting the visual cover the killers inched closer to their target and pumped two bullets into his chest The bullet wounds were through and through A 22yearold passerby was injured in the left calf muscle by a bullet which got lodged in his leg without exiting He is currently admitted to Bhabha Hospital in Bandrardquo the insider addedSiddique was walking toward his car which was parked barely 100 metres from the office of his son MLA Zeeshan Siddique ldquoA total of six rounds were fired at Siddique by the shooters who attempted to flee the scene but were apprehended by the policerdquo an officer added An eyewitness Soman Shaikh who runs a haircutting salon located just a few steps from the crime scene told midday that he heard gunshots fired in quick successionldquoI was alarmed after hearing the backtoback gunshots Itrsquos chilling to think that what initially sounded like festive noise turned out to be something so violent Siddique had collapsed on the ground and the situation quickly turned chaoticrdquo recalled ShaikhConstables along with PSI and APIlevel officers were regulating traffic when the contract killers shot Siddique Unaware of the shooting police only realised after the killers attempted to escape by dispersing in the area ldquoThe 23yearold Gurmail Baljit Singh tried to flee towards Western Express Highway but was caught by a constable and a jawan from Maharashtra State Forcerdquo said a Mumbai police officerldquoAt first the constables thought they had caught a mobile or chain snatcherrdquo the officer added Singhrsquos another accomplice also ran in the same direction but managed to evade the police Taking advantage of the darkness he jumped a boundary wall of a Childrenrsquos Complex building in the area and hid in the greeneryldquoThe police had already cornered him in there and with the help of security guards arrested himrdquo said an officerSecurity guard Inder Yadav said ldquoI was preparing dinner when cops knocked on the main door holding mobile torches They told me a thief was hiding in our compound so I assisted them He had a bag with him but I donrsquot know what was insiderdquo Another guard Anwar Khan added ldquoWe suspect he jumped fencing along the WEH to enter the premisesrdquoThe third assailant Shiv Kumar Gautam was able to escape by blending into the crowd ldquoHe later fled wielding two pistols said a few localsrdquo the officer addedBullet hit a passerbyA bullet hit a 22yearold Raj Nirmal who was standing nearby He was rushed to Bhabha Hospital where doctors removed the bullet Nirmal a tailor lives in Kherwadi with his parents and sister His father Matafer Kanojia said ldquoRaj told me he was there for the Durgadevi procession when smoke appeared and he heard what he thought were firecrackers Suddenly he felt pain in his leg and realised he had been shotrdquoNirmalrsquos uncle Shivdayal Kanojia added ldquoRaj is a tailor and his father does ironing work His sisterrsquos is getting married next month Their income has now stopped because of thisrdquo100Approx No of people at the sceneCops immediately arrested shootersFive police officers from the Nirmal Nagar police station apprehended two shooters who fired at former NCP leader Baba Siddique immediately after the incident The officers initially mistook the gunshots for firecrackers They first apprehended one suspect on suspicion of robbery and then caught the second suspect who was hiding nearbyThe officers involved were API Ramchandra Dhabade and Constables Sagar Koyande Surekha Mane Sandeep Awhad and Suhas Nalawade They also recovered two pistols and 28 live rounds from the suspects At the scene over 100 people and about 50 police officers were present for heavy security during the immersion procession in KherwadiAll five officers were stationed along the Western Express Highway when they heard a loud noise initially believing it to be firecrackers Gurmail Singh one of the suspects was seen running toward them The officers suspected Singh was a thief but upon apprehending him they discovered he was armed with a pistol They also learned that another suspect had fled onto the Western Express HighwayA police officer stated ldquoThese five policemen caught the first suspect Singh and later pursued the second suspect who jumped over a 5foot safety wall of the Childrenrsquos Complex in Kherwadi and hid in the greenery but he was arrested thererdquo