Grapevine

Muslim politician in India’s Maharashtra shot dead weeks before state polls

Two suspects are in custody after Baba Siddique was shot multiple times outside his legislator son’s office in Mumbai.

A senior Muslim politician in India’s financial capital Mumbai has been shot dead weeks before a key state election, with police probing the role of a notorious crime gang.

Baba Siddique, 66, a three-time legislator and former minister in Maharashtra state, was shot multiple times outside the office of his son, also a legislator, in Mumbai on Saturday night, police said in a statement.

He later succumbed to his wounds at the city’s Lilavati Hospital.

Siddique was associated with the main opposition Congress party for decades but had recently joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – a regional party that governs Maharashtra in coalition with another regional group, the Shiv Sena, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).