Mumbai, Dec 9 (PTI) Mumbai police seeking the remand of 13 accused in the Baba Siddique murder case told the MCOCA court on Monday that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's role in the killing has not been found as yet, while his brother Anmol Bishnoi is running a separate gang.
Siddique was shot dead on October 12 in Nirmal Nagar area in Bandra, and police have so far arrested 26 persons, including alleged shooter Shivkumar Gautam. Anmol Bishnoi is a wanted accused in the case.
Police had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the 26 arrested accused on November 30.
Of the 26 accused, 13 were on Monday produced before the MCOCA court, which remanded them to police custody till December 16. The remaining accused are in judicial custody.
While seeking remand, Mumbai police, through the special public prosecutor, told court the case has multiple small links and all these have to be connected to complete the probe, for which custody is required.
The police told court the probe has found that Anmol Bishnoi sent Rs 40,000 to accused Nitin Sapre and the financial aspect linked to the case needs to be probed.
Anmol Bishnoi's gang was operating in states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh and "he was trying to establish his supremacy as gang leader", the prosecution told the special court.
Police also told court the Bishnoi siblings are now running separate gangs.
Responding later to remarks of defence lawyers that initial media reports had claimed Lawrence Bishnoi was behind Siddique's killing, the prosecution clarified the role of the jailed gangster has not been found in the case and "he is not an accused until now".
Defence lawyers Sidhart Agarwal, Kunal Khopade and Roopesh Jaiswal opposed the police's remand plea claiming the probe agency had not categorically mentioned the role of the accused.
Even though MCOCA was invoked later, the accused had been interrogated by the same investigating officer who had interrogated them when they were in police custody following their arrest, the defence lawyers told court.
After hearing arguments of the prosecution and the defence, the court remanded the 13 accused to police custody till December 16.