The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to interfere with the grant of bail to Akashdeep Karaj Singh, one of the accused in the murder of former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique, observing that the Bombay High Court’s order was “well-reasoned” and did not warrant reversal. The court dismissed a plea filed by Shehzeen Ziauddin Siddique, the widow of the deceased leader, challenging the relief granted to Singh. Baba Siddique, a three-time MLA was shot dead on October 12, 2024. (PTI file photo)

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan underscored that the high court had applied its mind extensively while granting bail on February 9, and cautioned against a sweeping approach in criminal cases.

“It is a well-reasoned judgment by the judge (Justice Neela Gokhale)…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, appearing for Shehzeen.

Ramakrishnan attempted to link Singh to the Bishnoi gang, which the prosecution alleges was behind the killing, but the bench remained unconvinced, pointing out that the high court had already evaluated the material on record and found it insufficient to establish prima facie complicity. The Supreme Court observed that the appeal did not appear to be on a strong footing in light of the detailed findings returned by the high court.

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During the hearing, a lawyer for the Maharashtra government sought to intervene, informing the court that the state was also in the process of challenging the bail order. This drew a sharp response from the bench, which remarked: “Now since the wife of the deceased is here before us, the state has also woken up from its slumber.”

The court ultimately refused to entertain the challenge and dismissed Shehzeen’s plea.

The Bombay High Court had granted bail to Singh, 22, making him the first accused to secure relief in the case relating to the killing of Siddique, a three-time MLA who was shot dead on October 12, 2024, outside the office of his son Zeeshan Siddique in Mumbai’s Bandra (East) area. Singh was arrested in November 2024 from a border village in Punjab after his earlier bail plea was rejected by a sessions court in July 2025.

In its detailed order, the high court had found significant gaps in the prosecution’s case. It noted that the primary allegation against Singh was that he had made two international calls purportedly linked to members or supporters of the Bishnoi organised crime syndicate. However, the court observed that the prosecution had failed to identify the recipients of these calls or establish any nexus between the calls and the alleged conspiracy.

The high court also examined confessional statements of co-accused persons and found that none of them implicated Singh in either the planning or execution of the murder. Even other pieces of evidence cited by the prosecution, such as a photograph allegedly showing Singh with a firearm and claims of financial transactions linked to the syndicate, were found to lack substantive evidentiary backing or connection to the crime.

While acknowledging the gravity of the offence and the broader allegations involving an organised crime syndicate, the high court had emphasised that the stringent conditions under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) could not be invoked in the absence of material demonstrating prima facie guilt. It held that mere allegations, unsupported by verifiable evidence, were insufficient to deny bail.

The court had also taken into account Singh’s young age, lack of criminal antecedents, and the absence of material suggesting a likelihood of reoffending, concluding that the statutory bar on bail under MCOCA did not apply in his case.

The prosecution has alleged that the murder of Siddique was orchestrated by Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, as part of a larger conspiracy to assert dominance of the crime syndicate. The police have arrested 26 persons in connection with the case and filed a chargesheet.

Anmol Bishnoi, who was deported to India in November after the United States deported him in connection with Siddique’s murder. Anmol has been wanted in connection with several violent crimes, including Siddique’s murder in October 2024 and that of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in May 2022. He was also linked in the case related to gunshots fired outside Bollywood star Salman Khan’s Mumbai home in April 2024.