On Tuesday, the Mumbai Police arrested a 20-year-old man from Noida in connection with a death threat made against Zeeshan Siddiqui, son of the late Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique, who was killed on 12 October.
Insight
The incident unfolded last Friday when an unidentified caller phoned Zeeshan’s public relations office, issuing threats to both him and Bollywood star Salman Khan while demanding a ransom.
An employee at the office reported the call, prompting police to file a complaint at the Nirmal Nagar police station.
Following a thorough investigation, authorities identified the suspect, Mohammad Tayyab, a Delhi resident, and arrested him in Sector 39 of Noida.
The Bandra police team took him into custody, transferring him to transit remand afterward.
Initial interrogations have revealed no known connections to organized crime or gang affiliations, prompting further inquiries into the motives behind the threats and any potential accomplices.
This arrest comes on the heels of another incident involving a 24-year-old man, Shaikh Hussain Shaikh Mausin, from Jamshedpur, detained for sending a threatening message to Mumbai traffic police via WhatsApp, demanding Rs 5 crore in ransom.
Zeeshan Siddiqui received threats after assailants shot dead his father, Baba Ziauddin Siddique, a notable figure in the NCP, in Bandra East.
Baba Siddique, who had a long-standing political career and was a close associate of former Union Minister Sunil Dutt, switched allegiance from Congress to support Ajit Pawar’s faction of the NCP earlier this year in anticipation of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In a significant turn of events, Zeeshan has now entered the political fray himself.
On 25 October, he officially joined the NCP during a ceremony attended by party President Ajit Pawar and state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, who subsequently nominated him to contest in the upcoming Maharashtra elections.
He is likely to face off against Varun Sardesai, the Shiv Sena-UBT candidate, in the Bandra East constituency.
Maharashtra is going to single-phase polls on 20 November.
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