Baba Murder: ‘Lawrence Bishnoi became his idol’: Shooter who ‘killed’ Baba Siddique aced class 10, then veered to crime | Lucknow News

LUCKNOW: If he had followed his family’s script, Dharmaraj Kashyap might have been giving shots to patients. Instead, the 20-year-old took to firing shots, ending up as an accused in the Mumbai murder of Baba Siddique.
Life had started on a high note for the callow youth from UP’s Bahraich as he scored 78% in his Class 10 board exams, prompting his family to goad him to pursue a career in medicine.
“Dharmaraj is now frightened. He succumbed to the allure of social media (where gangsters bragged about their exploits) and ventured down a misguided path in pursuit of monetary gain and influence. Gangsters like Lawrence Bishnoi became his idols. I reproach myself for not being able to look after my younger brother,” elder brother Anurag told TOI.
The first signs of the plans going awry appeared when Dharmaraj — alias Rocky Kashyap — failed to appear for his intermediate exam this year. Admonished by Anurag over this, Dharmaraj left for Pune with Shivkumar Gautam, his friend and neighbour. Shivkumar is now the prime suspect in Siddique’s murder and is currently absconding.
Shivkumar had been engaged in the scrap business for the last three years in Pune with cousin Harish Nishad, who has also been arrested over Siddique’s murder. For Dharmaraj, though, life and work in Pune seemed a novel experience.
A day after the shooting of Siddique on Oct 12, a Mumbai police team had taken Anurag away from his Gandara village in Bahraich for questioning. He returned home just two days back.”Mumbai police allowed me to sit with Dharmaraj and speak. He revealed that Shubham Lonkar, the Akola-based sharpshooter affiliated with the Bishnoi gang, served as his primary contact. However, the directives for targets assigned to him and other gang members originated from the upper echelons of the gang, with minimal information divulged about the intended target,” Anurag claimed.
The youngest among six siblings, Dharmaraj was being cared for by Anurag, whose garments store is the primary source of income for the family.
Before taking to scrap trade, sources said Shivkumar had worked as a food delivery agent to support his family. “Shivkumar is younger than Dharmaraj but appears more mature. He is a class five dropout. Neither exhibited any violent behaviour while they were in the village,” Anurag said.