Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Applied in Baba Siddique Murder Case | Mumbai News

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch, probing the murder of former minister Baba Siddique, on Saturday invoked the sections of the stringent law, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) 1999 , in the case. So far, 26 accused, including three shooters, have been arrested. The motive behind the murder still remains unclear.
Siddique was shot dead on the night of Oct 12 outside his son Zeeshan Siddique’s Bandra (East) office.
The city crime branch, which is also probing the firing case outside actor Salman Khan’s Galaxy Apartment, has already invoked MCOCA against the accused in the firing case. Unidentified shooters had on April 14 fired at Salman’s Galaxy Apartments residence and fled. Nobody was injured in the firing.
The MCOCA was enacted by the Maharashtra govt in 1999 to tackle organised crime syndicates. Soon after it was introduced, hundreds of gangsters from the Dawood Ibrahim-Chhota Shakeel gang, Chhota Rajan gang, and members of splinter groups led by gangsters Abu Salem, Santosh Shetty, and Ravi Pujari were booked under this law. Under the MCOCA, police get a period of six months to file a charge sheet in a heinous crime case compared to three months under the IPC/BNS. Special courts conduct trials in the MCOCA cases.
In the Siddique firing case, three accused—Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, Zeeshan Mohammad Akhtar, and Anmol Bishnoi—are still wanted in the case. Police have issued lookout circular notices against these wanted accused. Anmol is the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Anmol was detained in the USA around 10 days ago.
On Oct 12, soon after the firing, the Nirmal Nagar police nabbed two shooters while one of them, Shivkumar Gautam alias Shiva (23), managed to flee. He was arrested near the Nepal border a month after the murder. Till now, investigators have seized five weapons, including Turkish and Australian-made pistols, and 64 bullets from the accused. The motive behind the murder is still not known. The alleged conspiracy was hatched between the accused belonging to Punjab, UP, and Pune.