Mumbai: The chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police in the Baba Siddique murder case has raised more questions than what it has answered. Baba (66), a senior politician and former minister, was shot dead on October 12 night outside the office of his son Zeeshan outside the latter's office in Bandra (E).

Over two dozen suspects have been arrested by the police, but till date the real motive for the sensational murder have not been revealed. The mastermind is yet to be identified. The arrested persons are small-time criminals working for the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and obviously the 'supari' (contract) to execute the murder was given to them by some powerful person/s. Given the political stature of Baba, the amount for the contract killing must have run into a couple of crore rupees.

The police are claiming that Baba was targeted because of his proximity to actor Salman Khan, who is in the hit list of the Bishnoi gang for gunning down black bucks in Rajasthan. The animals are revered by the Bishnois and Lawrence has openly threatened to kill Salman if he does not apologise. Salman's father Salim has already rejected the demand for an apology and this has made the situation more delicate for the actor.

If Baba was killed for being close to Salman, there are several others in Bollywood and politics who also enjoyed good equation with the actor. So why only Baba?

Soon after the murder Zeeshan had driven down to the police headquarters at Crawford Market and submitted a letter giving the names of some builders whom he suspected to be behind the murder. Baba was apparently opposing certain large SRA projects since the demands of the slum-dwellers were being ignored by the big builders concerned.

Zeeshan is rightly shocked that none of the builders was even summoned by the police and questioned. In all criminal cases, if someone raises suspicion about a particular person the standard procedure followed by the police is to summon him and ask questions. But strangely enough the investigators did not find it necessary to adhere to protocol and question the builders named by Zeeshan.

The FPJ had reported about a big builder who is known to be personally close to Dawood Ibrahim and who is implementing a large SRA project on prime land. He is so close to the don that he goes to Pakistan and meets him to discuss confidential matters.

Also, the police have not questioned Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged in Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad, in connection with other crimes. The questioning of Lawrence was the obvious thing for the police to do, but they have not done that. The investigators had written to the Union home ministry for permission to transfer Lawrence to Mumbai for interrogation. The Union ministry apparently has not responded and this adds more mystery to the murder.

The police say that Lawrence's brother Anmol might have had a hand in the murder. But it is impossible that Anmol would accept a big contract killing assignment of this nature without the knowledge of his brother. Activist Aftab Siddique said, "The truth about Baba's murder will never be known as long as the present dispensation continues."