Baba Siddique murder: Shooters learnt to operate firearms through YoutTube

Shooters involved in the killing of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in Kurla area officials said on Wednesday reported news agency PTIBaba Siddique 66 a former Congress leader who had joined the Nationalist Congress Party earlier this year was waylaid by three persons in Mumbais Nirmal Nagar area just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddiques office and shot on Saturday night reported PTIThe Mumbai polices crime branch which is investigating the Baba Siddique murder case during the interrogation of the accused persons found that suspected shooter Shivkumar Gautam who is on the run had learnt to handle guns during the celebratory firings at weddings in Uttar Pradesh an official saidDuring the interrogation of the arrested accused Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap it also came to light that Gautam was hired as the main shooter as he had the knowledge of handling firearms he saidKashyap and Singh were trained in shooting by Gautam at a rented house in Kurla where they did dry practice shooting without bullets he said reported PTIThey learnt loading and unloading the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks as they could not find an open space for practice the official said reported PTIOne of the alleged coconspirators Shubham Lonkar was on police radar till September 24 after he was questioned in June in connection with an incident of firing outside actor Salman Khans residence here in April as the involvement of Lawrence Bishnoi gang was suspected reported PTIShubham Lonkar had been arrested in January in an Arms Act case registered at Akot police station in Maharashtras Akola district but he later got bail Police had recovered more than ten firearms in that case an official said while sharing an update on Baba Siddique murder reported PTIShubham had been found to be in communication with Lawrence Bishnois brother Anmol he saidSince then he was on the police radar but he went untraceable on September 24 the official saidDuring the investigation it also came to light that the accused persons used to communicate with each other by using social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram he said reported PTIShubham Lonkar has a knowledge of mobile phone apps he saidHe had asked all the members involved in the conspiracy to kill Siddique to speak via Instagram and chat through Snapchat to avoid surveillance the official said reported PTISnapchat has a feature which automatically deletes most messages after theyve been viewed or expired he saidWith inputs from PTI