Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique shot dead in Mumbai

Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, was shot dead in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

Siddique was shot allegedly by three men in the city’s Bandra East area. He was taken to the Lilavati Hospital, where he died during treatment, ANI reported.

Two of the alleged shooters have been arrested while the police are searching for the third.

The two men arrested have been identified as 23-year-old Gurmail Singh from Haryana and another person from Uttar Pradesh, who claimed to be a minor in court on Sunday.

The police said that the assailants fired six to seven rounds of bullets at the former minister when he left his son Zeeshan Siddique’s office and was about to get into his car, The Indian Express reported. Two bullets hit him in the chest, and one in the abdomen.

The killing took place on a day when the police were on high alert due to the annual Dussehra rallies that were held by the rival factions of the Shiv Sena. Opposition leaders questioned the state government for failing to ensure law and order and urged it to take responsibility for the killing.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde described the killing as extremely unfortunate and said he has directed the police to ensure that no one takes law and order into their hands. “A gang war-like situation must not be allowed to rear its head,” he said.

Siddique had been a member of the Congress for 48 years, but switched to the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party two months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. He represented the Bandra West constituency in Mumbai from 1999 to 2014 as a Congress MLA, and was a minister of state from 2004 to 2008.

Siddique was known for being close to several celebrities from the Hindi film industry, including actors Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt. The three-time MLA was killed six months after two bike-borne men allegedly fired five rounds of bullets outside Salman Khan’s home.

‘Complete collapse of law and order’: Opposition

Opposition leaders said that Siddique’s killing signified a failure of law and order and urged the Maharashtra government to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said: “This horrifying incident exposes the complete collapse of law and order in Maharashtra. The government must take responsibility, and justice must prevail.”

NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar leader Sharad Pawar said it was a '“warning bell for society” if the home minister and the government were so ineffectual in governing the state.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray said that Siddique’s death was shocking. “This, sadly reflects on the law and order situation in Maharashtra,” he said. “The complete collapse of administration, law and order.”