New Delhi, March 19 The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with the bail granted to Akashdeep Karaj Singh, an accused in the murder of NCP leader and former MLA Baba Siddique, observing that the high court's order from last month was "well-reasoned".
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan dismissed the plea filed by Shehzeen Ziauddin Siddique, the widow of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, saying that the high court's order of February 9 does not warrant interference.
"It is a well-reasoned judgment… You cannot paint everyone with the same brush. There is nothing to connect this person with the crime in question," the bench told senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, who was appearing for the wife of the deceased leader.
Ramakrishnan alleged that Singh had links with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which, according to the prosecution, was connected with the killing of Siddique.
However, the bench pointed out that the high court had already examined the material on record and found it to be insufficient to establish Singh's complicity.
When counsel for the Maharashtra government told the bench that they would also challenge the bail, the bench observed, "Now since the wife of the deceased is here before us, the state has also woken up from its slumber."
On February 9, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Akashdeep Karaj Singh, making him the first person to get relief in the case.
The high court conceded that the offence committed by the organised crime syndicate, alleged to be headed by Lawrence and Anmol Bishnoi, was a "serious offence", yet it was "unable to form an opinion that there are reasonable grounds, at this stage, for believing that the accusations against the applicant of commission of the offence under the MCOCA are prima facie true."
The court granted Singh, a resident of Punjab, bail on a surety of Rs 1 lakh and directed him not to leave Mumbai until the trial is over.
Siddique, 66, was shot dead by three men outside his son Zeeshan's office in the Bandra East area on the night of October 12, 2024.
Singh, 22, was arrested in November 2024.
The high court in its detailed order said that the prosecution's case against Singh hinges on one call made by him to a co-accused and noted that one call cannot connect Singh with an organised crime syndicate, unless it clearly demonstrated that he had knowledge that the co-accused was engaged in the syndicate.
Singh claimed before the high court that he was only accused of being a member of an organised crime syndicate, and no specific role has been attributed to him in the present case.
He also contended the trial in the case would not start in the near future, and said incarceration without trial was violative of his fundamental rights.
In January, the police filed a chargesheet in the case, listing Anmol Bishnoi, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, as a wanted accused in the case.
According to the prosecution, Anmol Bishnoi hatched a conspiracy to kill Siddique to instil fear and dominance of the syndicate.
The police have arrested 26 people in the case and booked them under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). They are currently in judicial custody.