The Supreme Court of India on Thursday declined to interfere with the bail granted to Akashdeep Karaj Singh, an accused in the high-profile murder of Nationalist Council Party (NCP) leader and former MLA Baba Siddique. A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan dismissed the plea filed by Siddique’s widow, Shehzeen Ziauddin Siddique, observing that the High Court’s decision to grant relief was “well-reasoned.”
The ruling reinforces the February 9 order from the Bombay High Court, which made the 22-year-old Punjab resident the first person to receive bail among the 26 individuals arrested in connection with the October 2024 killing.
During the proceedings, the bench addressed the arguments presented by senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing Shehzeen Siddique. Ramakrishnan contended that Singh had links to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which the prosecution alleges orchestrated the assassination.
However, the Supreme Court noted that the High Court had already scrutinized the evidence and found it insufficient to establish Singh’s complicity at this stage.
“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 remarked.
The court also took note of the Maharashtra government’s intent to challenge the bail. When the state’s counsel informed the bench of their planned appeal, the justices observed, “Now since the wife of the deceased is here before us, the state has also woken up from its slumber.”
The Bombay High Court, while acknowledging the “serious offence” committed by the organized crime syndicate allegedly headed by Lawrence and Anmol Bishnoi, stated it was unable to find reasonable grounds to believe the accusations against Singh under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were prima facie true.
The prosecution’s case against Singh primarily rested on a single phone call made to a co-accused. The High Court ruled that a solitary call cannot establish a connection to a criminal syndicate unless it is proven that the caller had specific knowledge of the syndicate’s activities.
Singh’s defense maintained that he was only accused of being a member of the syndicate without any specific role attributed to him in the actual murder. Furthermore, the defense argued that with the trial unlikely to begin in the near future, continued incarceration would violate his fundamental rights.
Baba Siddique, 66, was shot dead on the night of October 12, 2024, outside the office of his son, Zeeshan Siddique, in Bandra East. The Mumbai Police have since filed a chargesheet naming Anmol Bishnoi as a wanted accused, alleging he hatched the conspiracy to instill fear and establish the syndicate’s dominance.
As part of his bail conditions, Singh is required to provide a surety of ₹1 lakh and is prohibited from leaving Mumbai until the conclusion of the trial.
