Two suspects in Baba Siddique murder from same UP village
Bahraich (PTI): Two youths involved in the killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique are from the same village in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Both of them were from regular families and had no criminal history, police said on Sunday.
Baba Siddique (66), a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead by three assailants in Mumbai on Saturday night.
Two of the accused, Dharmaraj Kashyap and Shiv Kumar alias Shiva Gautam, are residents of Gandara village in Bahraich.
Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla said both of them were working at a scrap shop in Pune, Maharashtra. They have no criminal history in Bahraich, he said.
Kaiserganj Circle Officer (CO) Anil Kumar Singh said, "Shiv Kumar had gone to Maharashtra a few years ago to work as a labourer and had invited Dharmaraj to join him."
Shiva's mother, Suman, expressed shock and disbelief at the allegations. While speaking to the media, she described her son as a hardworking and peaceful person. She said that he had gone to Pune to work at a scrap shop and had last visited the village during Holi.
"Policemen and media people have been coming and going since morning asking about Shiva. The police have questioned us too," she added.
Dharmaraj's mother Kusum said that he went to Pune to work as a scrap dealer. "When the police came to our house in the morning, we came to know that my son is involved in some case."
Though they have no criminal history in Bahraich, still, as a precaution, "the police is trying to gather information about both of them, Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla told mediapersons.
"They belong to normal families and both were in touch with their families. A police team visited their homes to find out whether they have any information about this incident or not," she added.
Head of the village Hasnain Kamal said that the villagers were unaware of the alleged involvement of the two men in the murder. "Both Shiva and Dharmaraj have no criminal history in the village and could be victims of a conspiracy," he said.
Mumbai Police has launched a probe into the killing of the former Maharashtra minister from different angles, including a possible contract killing, business rivalry or threat over a slum rehabilitation project, officials said on Sunday.
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.
Baba Siddique (66) was waylaid by three men at Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office and shot at on Saturday night. He was taken to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai where he was declared dead.
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PM Modi, RSS strengthening wall in path of SCs, STs, OBCs: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS were strengthening the wall standing in the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs, even as he acknowledged that the UPA took steps to weaken that wall but not to the extent it should have.
Addressing the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan', Gandhi also referred to the function held on Constitution Day in Parliament and said that it is his guarantee, that "Modi has not read" the Constitution.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," Gandhi said, displaying a copy of the Constitution of India.
Gandhi said the country's whole system is pitted against Dalits, Adivasis and backward class people.
He said a wall obstructs the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and Modi and the RSS are strengthening that wall by "adding cement to it".
"Slowly the wall (obstructing the path of SCs, STs, OBCs) is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," Gandhi said.
"However, we used to make efforts to weaken that wall but they (the BJP) are strengthening that wall by adding concrete," the former Congress president said.
Gandhi said a caste survey being carried out in Telangana is a historic step and the Congress will do the same wherever it comes to power.
