Mumbai, Oct 13 A Mumbai court on Sunday sent one of the two accused arrested in the murder case of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Ziauddin Siddiqui to police custody till October 21, while the other has been sent for medical examination to determine his actual age.
23-year-old Gurnail Baljit Singh from Haryana has been sent to police custody for a week, a lawyer said. The other accused, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, is a minor. He has been sent for ossification test to determine his correct age.
The two are accused of shooting former Maharashtra minister Siddiqui near the office of his son and Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui in Nirmal Nagar in Bandra on Saturday evening. The incident created a stir in political circles. The arrested accused were produced before Esplanade Court Magistrate S.C. Tayde on Sunday afternoon.
A Mumbai Police official said that the interrogation of the two arrested accused is going on, while 15 police teams are engaged in the search of the third accused Shiv Kumar. The police is working in collaboration with departments (police) of other states.
The police have recovered 28 live cartridges and two mobile phones from the accused. Further investigation is underway into the conspiracy behind the suspected murder of Siddiqui by three people who came here on September 2 after taking a contract.
He said that the Mumbai Police managed to arrest two of the three attackers soon after the attack on Siddiqui, while the third, identified as Shiv Kumar, managed to escape.
Earlier, the accused were brought to the court wearing ‘burqa’ and when the magistrate asked their name and age, one of them claimed that he was a minor. However, public prosecutor Gautam Gaikwad opposed it, saying that after taking him into custody on Saturday night, the police recovered an Aadhaar card which showed his date of birth as March 1, 2003, meaning he is 21 years old.
Meanwhile, Siddiqui was cremated with full state honours at the Bada Kabristan in Bandra on Sunday evening. A large number of politicians, Bollywood celebrities and thousands of supporters attended the funeral procession.
