Baba Siddique murder: Man held from Akola, 26th arrest in case

Mumbai: A man was arrested on Friday from Maharashtra’s Akola district in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case, an official said.

The NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister was shot at on October 12 near his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Nirmal Nagar area in Bandra East. He died some time later at a nearby hospital.

A Crime Branch team that had gone to Nagpur in connection with the probe held Sumit Dinkar Wagh (26), a resident of Panaj in Akot tehsil in Akola, the official said.

“Wagh transferred money from an account in Karnataka Bank’s Petlad Branch in Gujarat’s Anand district to Nareshkumar, brother of arrested accused Gurmail Singh, as well as arrested accused Rupesh Mohol and Harishkumar. He transferred the money online using a SIM brought in the name of arrested accused Salman Vora,” he said.

“The money was transferred on the instructions of wanted accused Shubham Lonkar, who hails from the same tehsil as Wagh and the two are close friends. They were collegemates in Akot. Salman Vora, a resident of Petlad in Anand, was held recently from Balapur in Akola,” the official added.