MUMBAI: Shehzeen Siddique, the widow of the slain former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, on Friday moved the Bombay High Court seeking an independent, impartial and court-monitored investigation into his murder.
She also rubbished the charge sheet filed by the police in the case, calling it a “mockery of justice”. She claimed that the police’s investigation was “incomplete and totally misleading”, adding that they had not probed the possibility of a powerful builders’ lobby being behind the brutal crime.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique, 66, was shot dead by three assailants outside his son and former MLA Zeeshan’s office in Bandra (East) on the night of October 12, 2024. The Mumbai police’s investigation linked the murder to the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The shooting was allegedly ordered by Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother, Anmol Bishnoi, who is currently wanted.
In her petition, filed through advocate Trivankumar Karnani, Shehzeen Siddique stated that the police’s charge sheet lists the “so-called” main accused, Anmol Bishnoi, and two co-accused, Mohammed Yasin Akhtar and Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, as wanted. However, she said, the charge sheet shows one blank form with particulars of an accused in a very casual manner. “Except for prescribing the sections of laws applied, it does not give the name of the fourth wanted man”, the petition said.
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Highlighting that 26 accused individuals are already in judicial custody, Siddique stated that an application for permission to conduct further investigation into the offence was submitted by the special public prosecutor before the special MCOCA court on April 21, 2025. However, it was later withdrawn on May 6 “for the best reasons known to him” (sic).
Siddique claimed that the investigation had been “left halfway” and “abandoned to save the persons actually involved in the murder, who are powerful in politics and are influential”. She added that the investigating officers had attempted to save these influential personalities “with an ulterior motive or on their instructions”. She demanded to know the names of the persons involved, alleging that they were a lobby of builders interested in slum rehabilitation projects between Bandra and Andheri, including the areas in the constituencies of Baba and Zeeshan Siddique.
“[Baba] Siddique always had the interest of slumdwellers and hence he was considered as a hurdle by several developers and builders in the area. This angle was never probed by the police (sic),” the plea said. It added that the builders have connections in the ruling state government, which is why the probe should be carried out by an independent investigating agency.
The petition also claimed that Baba Siddique got threatening messages from a certain Prithvijeet Chavan in July last year. The text messages appeared to be a threat to ruin Zeeshan’s political career, it added.
“The messages definitely establishes the fact and reflects that Prithvijeet Chavan and his lobby are not ordinary builders, but they have strong ties with the powerful politicians and have either the backing of or the association or the partnership with powerful politicians in ambitious SRA projects (sic),” said the petition. It added that Zeeshan, supported by his father, was a big hurdle in the path of powerful builders, for whom slum rehabilitation projects are lucrative.
Shehzeen Siddique further alleged that the failure of the investigating authorities confirms that the probe was intentionally misguided by the powers behind the builder lobby. “It clearly proves that Kishor Kumar Shinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police, had the clear orders to suppress and bury the crime by avoiding the investigation with respect to the above-named powerful persons to save them”, the petition said.
Siddique also highlighted that the entire investigation revolved around the logic that Anmol Bishnoi had ordered Baba Siddique’s murder to take revenge, which she said was misleading. “This conclusion cannot be supported unless the reason for taking the revenge against him is brought on record,” she said in her petition.
It has earlier been reported that Bishnoi’s primary motive appeared to be Baba Siddique’s close association with actor Salman Khan, who has long been a target of the gang. According to the prosecution, though, Bishnoi hatched a conspiracy to kill Siddique to instil fear and dominance over the crime syndicate.
Claiming that there was an “intentional failure” on the part of the investigating officers in bringing the real culprits to book and discharging their duties, Shehzeen Siddique requested the court to order an independent investigation into the murder of her husband through a court-monitored team.