Mumbai: Shiv Kumar Gautam, the alleged main shooter in the Baba Siddique murder case, revealed that after the killing, he made a call to mastermind Shubham Lonkar, Zeeshan Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap and spoke to them for at least 15 minutes, said the crime branch.
The cops said that the accused told them that a few hours after the October 12 murder, he dumped his phone into a nullah near the Thane station as per the trio's instructions. Gautam also informed them that though he managed to escape, his other accomplices, Dharamraj Kashyap and Gurmail Singh, were caught by the police. After the confession, the crime branch took Gautam to the spot where had thrown his phone so that it could be recovered.
Gautam further revealed that as per Lonkar’s instructions, he boarded a Pune-bound express train from Thane, said the police. During the call, Lonkar instructed Kashyap to arrange shelter for the 'shooter' and help him escape to Nepal, they added.
Meanwhile, Gautam's police custody has been extended till November 23, while seven others – Kashyap, Omi Tripathi, Akash Srivastava, Akhilendra Singh, Aditya Gulankar, Rafique Shaikh and Gaurav Apune – were sent to judicial custody. The cops told the court that Kashyap is trying to mislead the authorities.
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In another related development, the crime branch has recovered 20 live cartridges from Shaikh's house in Pune's Karve Nagar. The ammunition was reportedly given to him by Praveen Lonkar, said the police, adding that Shubham was in regular contact with Anmol Bishnoi, and trusted him deeply.