Lucknow, 14 Oct

Uttar Pradesh native Shiv Kumar Gautam, an absconding suspect in politician Baba Siddique's killing in Mumbai, had taken to posting online content in recent months, flaunting his "gangster" status.

"Yaar tera gangster hai jaani (your friend is a gangster)" Gautam had captioned his photo post on his Instagram account on 24 July. The photo showed him on a motorcycle as a Haryanvi song played in the background.

Gautam hails from Gandara village in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, where locals and police said he had no criminal history. They added that he had gone to work at a scrap shop in Maharashtra's Pune.

Another post of his on 8 July was captioned "Sharif baap hai # (expletives) hum nahin". On 26 May, he posted a brief video of a city skyline along with background music from "KGF", a film about a mercenary, with its dialogue "powerful people make places powerful".

Interestingly, the number of Gautam's followers on Instagram has nearly doubled almost overnight -- from 299 on Sunday to 504 on Monday. His mother, Suman, had expressed shock and disbelief over the police's claim that Gautam was among those involved in the sensational killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former lawmaker Baba Siddique (66) at Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area, just outside his son Zeeshan Siddique's office, on Saturday night. Baba Siddique was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Suman told the media that her son had last visited her in Gandara during Holi. She had claimed that after the visit, Gautam left for Pune in the first week of April.

Gautam's Instagram profile showed his last post on the social media platform was on 4 August, when he had posed for a photo on a motorcycle.

A post on April 10 showed him working at a warehouse, packing orders. The video was captioned "yeh kam karte hain hum order ready karne ka". His other posts largely carried cryptic messages about heartbreak while one was about religious pride.

In all, the Instagram account of the accused has 33 posts, beginning 20 May, 2023 and the latest being on 4 August this year. 

The unverified account had less than 300 followers till Sunday but the number swelled to more than 500 by Monday afternoon.

Gautam followed 49 Instagram accounts, including those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister Chirag Paswan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and his MP son, Karan Bhushan Singh.

In Mumbai, police said three people have so far been arrested in connection with the high-profile killing, which has sparked a political controversy.

On Sunday evening, the Mumbai Police arrested a 28-year-old man from Pune. Police said the arrested man, Pravin Lonkar, was a "co-conspirator" and added that they are on the lookout for his brother, Shubham Lonkar. This is the third arrest in the case.

A crime branch official on Sunday said Pravin and Shubham had enlisted two alleged shooters -- Uttar Pradesh residents Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap and Gautam. While Gautam is on the run, police have arrested Kashyap and another alleged shooter, identified as Gurmail Baljit Singh, a native of Haryana.

Co-Conspirator arrested in Baba Siddique murder case