Patna born Baba Siddique (66), a native of Gopalganj, Bihar and a former Maharashtra Minister was reportedly killed by three attackers from the gang of Lawrence Bishnoi (31) in Mumbai. Siddique was a close friend of Salman Khan, the renowned actor. After being shot at, Siddique was rushed to Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai where he was declared dead. It is apparent that he was killed for being close to the actor.
Siddique was the MLA in Maharashtra Assembly for three consecutive terms in 1999, 2004 and 2009. He had also served as Minister of State for Food & Civil Supplies and Labour under Congress Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh between 2004 and 2008. Siddique had served as Municipal Corporator earlier for two consecutive terms between 1992 and 1997. On February 8, 2024, Siddique resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress. Prior to that he served as the Chairperson and Senior Vice President of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee and Parliamentary Board of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. Siddique later joined the Nationalist Congress Party led by Ajit Pawar on February 12, 2024 which is part of the ruling party alliance in the Maharashtra and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. His son, Zeeshan (32) is the youngest Maharashtra MLA from Bandra East, Mumbai.
Gurmail Baljit Singh from Haryana and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh have been taken into custody in the case of Siddiqui's murder. The police have named two more suspects, Shivkumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh, and Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar. The police have arrested Praveen Lonkar, who is said to have provided logistics support. It has been claimed that his absconding brother Shubham Lonkar was the mastermind behind the shooting. The Mumbai Police have confirmed that the gang led by Lawrence Bishnoi, a law graduate was involved in the murder. Bishnoi is currently lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in connection with a ₹ 195-crore drugs case. Mumbai Police has submitted multiple requests for Bishnoi's custody from Sabarmati jail but these requests have been denied due to an order of Union Ministry of Home Affairs preventing transfer of Bishnoi because he faces multiple cases under investigation by both the Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the NIA. In August 2024, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had extended the restrictions on movement of Bishnoi from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad for another year. The restrictive order was imposed under Section 268 of the Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC). It was to expire in August 2024. But the restrictive order has now been extended under Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 till August 2025.
Notably, on July 30 2024, Supreme Court's bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma had passed an order dismissing a special leave petition (SLP) challenging the first information reports (FIRs) lodged against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on the direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in connection with the interview given to a private TV while being lodged in high-security prison. The SLP was filed on June 11, 2024, verified on July 25, 2024 and registered on July 30, 2024. The respondents were: the State of Punjab, the State of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Kirti Singh had passed a detailed order on December 21, 2023. The High Court took note of the case of Lawrence Bishnoi's interview while hearing a totally unrelated case.
The High Court's order reads: "While hearing the matter, it had also come to our notice that a known criminal, namely, Lawrence Bishnoi, who is also a suspect in the murder case of a renowned singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu Moosewala, had been interviewed by a News channel and the interviews had been telecast in March, 2023. Lawrence Bishnoi was stated to be in the custody of the Punjab police or judicial custody in the State of Punjab at that time. We were informed that the interviewee was in Bathinda jail when the interview was telecast but the place and time the interview was conducted was not known. A two member High-Powered Committee comprising of Director General, STF and ADGP, Prisons had been constituted in March 2023 to enquire into the incident as it had been viewed seriously by the authorities. The report of the Committee had been placed before us in a sealed cover and a copy of the report was also furnished to the learned amicus curiae. Learned amicus curiae submits that there are several aspects which have not been looked into by the Committee and if the matter is properly investigated or re-examined, the exact time and location of the place where the interviewee was situated when the interviews were conducted can be pinpointed. She also submits that after registration of FIR, these aspects can be looked into by the Special Investigation Team. She stated that the telecast of the interviews is having an adverse impact on youngsters who are getting swayed and it creates wrong impression on the young impressionable minds as the interviews glorifies the criminal life and activities and the interviewee has justified taking law in his own hands for settling personal scores. In fact, a prisoner facing so many criminal cases had access to technology while being in custody and then through that technology has justified his criminal acts as desire of God/destiny. The interviews have been viewed by over 12 million viewers. The amicus curiae further submits that after the telecast of interviews, many more young persons have started writing threatening letters to the film actor targeted in the interview of Lawrence Bishnoi. She further submits that although the fundamental right to speech and expression is important, but this right is subject to reasonable restrictions which include public order, decency, morality and incitement to offence. The telecast of the interviews is adversely affecting public order and harmony."
The order reads: "We have also gone through the report which indicates that the Committee has come to the conclusion that it is highly improbable that interviews had taken place either in judicial custody or in the police custody in the State of Punjab. It is apparent that the Committee has not reached a definite conclusion that the interviews were not being conducted in a jail or police custody within the State of Punjab. They have recorded the statements of large number of witnesses in this regard. We find it strange that the Committee took over 8 months to arrive at an inconclusive finding. Nonetheless, the Committee has made a recommendation for registration of two FIRs with regard to two interviews which were conducted in violation of the law. The Committee has recommended that the government may consider registration of two separate FIRs (one each for the respective interview) at a police station having statewide jurisdiction to investigate the matter and take on record relevant evidence/data exercising the powers available under Cr.P.C. If during the course of investigation, the offence(s) relating to any of the two cases or both of them is/are found to have occurred outside the State, the concerned case(s) may be transferred to police station(s) of appropriate jurisdiction. Further, the Committee has also made a recommendation to the Government to remove the URL of the video from the public domain."
The order reads: "The ADGP, Prisons, Punjab submits that they recommended registration of FIR as after registration of FIR the matter can be investigated with the procedure prescribed under the Cr.P.C. for summoning the witnesses to record their statements etc. Learned State counsel submits that the report is being considered by the Government and appropriate action would be taken. She also submits that Lawrence Bishnoi is involved in 71 cases in the State of Punjab and had been convicted in 4 cases which includes offences under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, 302 IPC, extortions etc. The State itself appears to have taken up the matter with some seriousness as a High-Powered Committee was set up by the State. In the backdrop of the gravity of the situation where a suspect, who is involved in a large number of serious criminal cases, is allowed to conduct an interview in police/judicial custody and it has taken the Committee over eight months to submit an inconclusive report, we, while directing the registration of the FIR would like the matter to be investigated by a Special Investigation Team. Those, who facilitated the interviews need to be brought to book at the earliest."
The High Court observed: "We have gone through the contents of the interviews which indicate that it glorifies crime and criminals....he interviewee is justifying target killings and his criminal activities. He has reiterated and justified threat to a film actor. As in a large number of cases wherein he is involved, trials are underway and attempt to projecting his persona as larger than life could influence the witnesses....The conduct of the interviews is an apparent jail security breach and violation of the Prisons Act. The interviews have been telecast for the last 9 months and are available on public domain. The Committee has recommended that the Government may ask the police to ensure removal of videos pertaining to Interview-I and Interview-II from YouTube/ internet, wherever possible. We would not like to wait for the government to act at its leisure but would direct the removal of the interviews. Reference can be made to the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in Court on its own motion vs. Union of India and others, (CROCP No.2 of 2023) wherein while relying upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India, (2015) 5 SCC 1, it had directed the removal/blocking of the offensive content from social media platforms."
It relied on Delhi High Court's decision in the case of ‘X’ vs. Union of India and ors. (Decided on : 20.04.2021),while drawing upon Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India wherein the Court had directed the offending contents to be removed. In the event of intermediary not removing objectionable contents in pursuance to the direction of this Court, it would loose its exemption under Section 79 of the I.T. Act from its liability in cases illustrated therein. Moreover, Rule 3(1)(b)(vii) of The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 provides that, the intermediary shall make reasonable efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information which threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence, or prevents investigation of any offence, or is insulting other nation; (emphasis supplied). Furthermore, Rule 3(1)(d) provides that an intermediary, on whose computer resource the information is stored, hosted or published, upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court of competent jurisdiction or on being notified by the Appropriate Government or its agency under clause (b) of sub-section (3) of section 79 of the Act, shall not host, store or publish any unlawful information, which is prohibited under any law for the time being in force in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India; security of the State; friendly relations with foreign States; public order; decency or morality; defamation; incitement to an offence relating to the above, or any information which is prohibited under any law for the time being in force.
The High Court had issued the following directions:
i) The DGP, Punjab, is directed to immediately register two FIRs with regard to the conduct of two interviews as recommended by the Special Investigation Team in the police station having State-wide jurisdiction.
ii) The investigation of the FIRs shall be carried out by the Special Investigation Team headed by Mr. Prabodh Kumar, IPS, DG, Human Rights Commission. The other members of the SIT would include Dr. S.Rahul, IPS and Ms.Nilambari Vijay Jagadale, DIG, Cyber Crime.
iii) The Head of the SIT would be at liberty to seek assistance of any other officer or of any other kind, on his making a request, the DGP, Punjab shall provide all necessary help and assistance to him. A copy of the report dated 11.12.2023 and the relevant record shall be handed over to the Head of the SIT. The SIT shall conclude the investigation expeditiously and file a status report before this Court within a period of two months.
iv) The DGP, Punjab is further directed:
(a) to get the URLs/weblinks/videos pertaining to both the said interviews removed/blocked/disable/restrict from all social media platforms like Youtube etc. forthwith;
(b) To ensure that the Press channel, where the said interview is hosted, removes the URLs/weblinks/videos from all its news /social media platforms with immediate effect;
(c) In case the said interviews are discovered by police authorities to be existing on any social media platform in future, the same be get removed with immediate effect;
(d) to direct the intermediary to preserve all the information associated relating to the offending content for use in investigation, in line with Rule 3(1) (g) of the 2021 Rules;
(e) To direct the search engines Google Search, Yahoo Search, Microsoft Bing to globally de-index and de-reference from their search results the afore-said interviews and their related contents as identified by its web URL and image URL.
(f) All the concerned intermediaries be informed that non- compliance with the foregoing directions would make the non-complaint party liable to forfeit the exemption, if any, available to it generally under Section 79 (1) of the I.T.Act and as specified by Rule 7 of 2021 Rules: and shall make such entity and its officers liable for action as mandated by section 85 of the I.T.Act.
(g) The ADGP, Prisons, Punjab shall file a status report with regard to the timelines for installation of jammers, CCTV cameras, nylon mesh, X-ray body scanners etc. for augmentation of jail security.
2010-2012: Several first information reports (FIRs) registered against Lawrence Bishnoi for crimes including an attempt to murder, trespassing, assault, and robbery.
2013: Bishnoi reportedly killed the winning candidate in the Government College elections in Muktsar, Punjab. He shot dead a rival candidate in the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections.
2014: Bishnoi engaged in an armed encounter with the Rajasthan Police, leading to his arrest. While being in jail, he allegedly connected with Jaswinder Singh, alias Rocky. The gangster-turned-politician Rocky was shot by gangster Jaipal Bhullar in 2016.
2021: Lawrence Bishnoi was transferred to Tihar Jail in Delhi owing to a case filed against him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
May 2022: Sidhu Moosewala Murder. Punjabi singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead in May 2022. Lawrence Bishnoi is alleged to have orchestrated his murder.
March 2023: A National investigation agency (NIA) report revealed Bishnoi’s and his associate Goldy Brar link to Pro-Khalistan outfits.
August 2023: Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad gained custody of Bishnoi, citing a case of drug smuggling, and he was transferred to a high security ward in Sabarmati jail.
September 2023: Sukha Duneke Murder. In September 2023, Gangster Sukhdool Singh, alias Sukha Duneke, of the Davinder Bambiha gang, was shot dead in Canada. A member of Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility for his murder later.
November 2023: Shots Fired at Gippy Grewal’s House. In November 2023,
shots were fired at Punjabi actor and singer Gippy Grewal’s residence in
Vancouver, Canada. Lawrence Bishnoi was behind this attack claiming
that she maintained close contact with Salman Khan and had called for
justice following Sidhu Moosewala’s killing.
April 2024: Firing Outside Salman Khan’s House. In
April 2024, two gunmen fired shots outside the residence of Bollywood
star Salman Khan in Bandra, Mumbai. According to Mumbai Police, the
shooters were allegedly hired by the Bishnoi gang to kill him. Salman
Khan was targeted due to his 1998 Blackbuck poaching case.
September 2024: Firing Outside Singer AP Dhillon’s Canada House. Shots were fired outside Canadian rapper and singer AP Dhillon’s house in Canada in September 2024. Accused Rohit Godara, a member of Bishnoi’s gang reportedly took responsibility for the attack.
October 12, 2024: Baba Siddique killed in Mumbai.
October 14, 2024: Canadian police claims that Punjab’s category-A gangster Bishnoi was connected to the murder of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June 2023. Punjab Police dossier refers to his connection with Harwinder Rinda, Pakistan-based gangster. In a media statement released in Canada late on October 14, 2024, Brigitte Gauvin, Assistant Commissioner, Federal Policing, National Security, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, alleged that Lawrence-Goldy Brar gang was connected to the ‘agents of the government of India’. “It (India) is targeting South Asian community but they are specifically targeting pro-Khalistani elements in Canada... What we have seen is, from an RCMP perspective, they use organised crime elements. It has been publically attributed and claimed by one organised crime group in particular — Bishnoi group... We believe that the group is connected to agents of the Government of India," claimed the Canadian statement.
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