The Mumbai Crime Branch’s investigation into the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique has revealed that contract killers had multiple backup shooters ready in case Shivkumar Gautam, Dharmraj Kashyap, and Gurmail Singh failed in their attempt. Officials discovered that some of these killers travelled to Maoist-affected areas in Jharkhand to receive training with AK-47s. Police suspect that Shubham Lonkar may have collaborated with local Maoist groups to facilitate this training for the shooters.

“The Maoist link is not confirmed, but given the location of their training, we are exploring this possibility. It appears Lonkar wanted to prepare them as a backup plan in case the initial shooters failed,” said a Crime Branch officer.