Senior Congress leader Ajoy Kumar on Sunday demanded a high-level probe into the killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai, asserting that the incident raises questions over the law and order state in Maharashtra.

Siddique (66) was waylaid by three men at Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office and shot at on Saturday night.

The former Maharashtra minister was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. A Congressman since his student days, Siddique quit the grand old party to join Ajit Pawar's NCP in February this year.

“A few days back, when I met him at a programme in Mangalore, he did not mention anything threatening to his life… A high-level inquiry should be ordered to unearth the truth,” said Kumar, an AICC executive committee member.

Siddique was a cordial and popular leader, who used to remain in the midst of masses, he said.

“His murder raises questions over the prevailing law and order of the state… Leave alone the comman man, even former ministers are not safe in Maharashtra,” the AICC in-charge of Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, said.

Assembly polls are due in Maharashtra soon, but “a sense of insecurity and terror is prevailing there” following the killing of Siddique, Kumar said in a statement.

The Congress leader also hinted at a conspiracy to create an atmosphere of fear ahead of the elections.

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