A senior politician in India’s financial capital Mumbai was shot dead on Saturday, weeks ahead of key state elections, with police probing the role of a notorious crime gang.

Baba Siddique, 66, a local lawmaker and former minister in Maharashtra state, was shot multiple times in the chest outside his son’s office in Mumbai, Indian media reported.

Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, from the same party as Siddique, said he was “shocked” by the “cowardly attack”.

The Hindustan Times newspaper reported that two suspected attackers had been arrested, and police were searching for another.

Broadcaster NDTV said the two suspects claimed they were part of a gang run by Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in jail accused of running a crime gang that has carried out multiple killings.

The shooting comes just weeks after Siddique’s security detail was upgraded after he received death threats, and ahead of elections slated for later this year.

“The incident will be thoroughly investigated and strict action will be taken against the attackers,” Pawar said in a statement. “The mastermind behind the attack will also be traced.”

Siddique was close to several Bollywood stars and was known for throwing grand parties.

Meanwhile, in 2023, in Uttar Pradesh, India, Atiq Ahmad, a politician with over 100 criminal cases, was shot dead on live TV while being escorted by police for a medical checkup.

As he spoke to journalists, a gunman approached and shot him in the head, followed by multiple rounds. His brother, Ashraf, was also killed in the attack.

This occurred just two days after Ahmad’s son, Asad, was killed by police in what many perceived as an extra-judicial act.

AFP

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government has warned sites that failed to sign up to new regulations due to take effect in January.

The Brazilian government has begun closing down several betting sites in the South American country.

Already, more than 2000 betting sites, including those that sponsor popular football team Corinthians and other first-division clubs, have been shut.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government has warned sites that failed to sign up to new regulations due to take effect in January.

The new rules seek to combat fraud and money laundering and protect users, by for example banning minors from betting.

The country is making the moves as part of a push to regulate online gambling.

According to Brazil Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, the country which is Latin America’s biggest economy is struggling a betting “pandemic,” prompting the government to tighten the screws on the sector.

In 2018, Brazil legalised sports betting sites.

The move led to gambling operating in a regulatory free-for-all, especially as there were virtually no taxes paid.

Asides from betting on Sports, gambling in Brazil has taken a new turn, with gambling on games like Aviator, where players gamble on the flight of a virtual airplane, or the online casino game Fortune Tiger.

On the blacklist is Esportes da Sorte, which sponsors Corinthians, one of Brazil’s most popular football clubs, as well as Athletico Paranaense, Bahia and Gremio de Porto Alegre.

The ministry said the betting sites would be blocked and banned from advertising, and sponsoring football clubs.

More than 200 other sites will be allowed to continue to operate after agreeing to the new rules.

Brazil’s central bank estimates that 24 million out of Brazil’s 212 million inhabitants, roughly one in nine people, gamble online.

Lula warned recently that betting was causing many low-income Brazilians to get into debt.

“Anyone who is not regularised, or in the process of being regularised, is being taken off the air,” Haddad said in a statement.

According to the finance ministry said it had identified 2,040 “suspicious domains” which it had asked the telecoms regulatory agency Anatel to block.