In the Baba Siddique murder case, Pravin Lonkar, a brother of the primary conspirator, was produced in Esplanade court in Mumbai. The District Magistrate Court has granted police custody till October 21, 2024.
Public Prosecutor S.N. Vaidya argued for custody and said, “Pravin Lonkar (28) has to be taken to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana for tracing his brother Shubham Lonkar.” Further added, “Pravin is important to link to know the association among all the six suspects in the case.”
Police suspect the weapons to the shooters were provided by Shubham Lonkar, who is already booked in the arms act case in Maharashtra’s Akola district. The public prosecutor has asked for his custody to explore all these angles.
The primary accused and Lawrence Bishnoi gang member, Shubham Lonkar claimed responsibility for Baba Siddique’s attack through a social media post. According to police, he is the mastermind and recruited” three shooters. The police have so far arrested three accused Gurmail Singh, Dharmaraj Kashyap, and Pravin Lonkar. Police are searching for three more suspects- Shivkumar Gautam, Mohamed Zeeshan Akhtar, and Shubham Lonkar.
Meanwhile, the defence lawyer urged the Court to give minimum custody as he has no association with this crime and had been made “scapegoat”.
The defence lawyer said, “Pravin has no association with this case, he was not aware of his brother’s intention.” He further said, “Police arrested him at 4 am in the morning but pretended the arrest happened in the evening. During his arrest, he was at home; if he had any involvement, he would have been on the run.”
Published - October 14, 2024 05:41 pm IST
