Shiv Kumar Gautam: Baba Siddique Killer Flaunted Gangster Persona on Social Media

Shiv Kumar Gautam: Baba Siddique Killer Flaunted Gangster Persona on Social Media

For months, Shiv Kumar Gautam, a Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh native and member of the three-person gang that is suspected of killing Mumbai politician Baba Siddique, had been showing off his “gangster” persona on social media. He posed on a motorcycle and wrote, “Yaar tera gangster hai jaani (your friend is a gangster),” in a photo he shared on Instagram on July 24.

Gautam had relocated to Pune, Maharashtra, to work at a scrap shop, even though he had no past criminal record. He is originally from Bahraich’s Gandara village. Suman, his father, said he was shocked by the charges and that Gautam had last been there during Holi before departing for Pune in early April.

“Sharif baap hai, hum nahin (My father is law-abiding, not me),” Gautam said openly in the caption of another Instagram image on July 8. On May 26, he also uploaded a video that included a city skyline and the well-known statement from the movie “KGF”: “Powerful people make places powerful.” His Instagram following is said to have risen after the murder.

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Three rounds were fired by the assailants before Baba Siddique, 66, was shot and killed outside his office. Because Siddique was close to actor Salman Khan, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for the murder. Gautam is still at large, but two suspected shooters, Gurmail Baljit Singh from Haryana and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh, have been taken into custody. Authorities are now looking for his brother, Shubham Lonkar, for his involvement in the crime. Another accused, Pravin Lonkar, was apprehended in Pune.