3 minutes of readingFebruary 9, 2026 02:38 pm IST
The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to Akashdeep Karaj Singh, one of the accused in the murder of former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique. Singh was arrested in November 2024 from a border village in Punjab.
Baba Siddique was shot dead on October 12, 2024, in front of the office of his son and former MP Zeeshan Siddique in Bandra (East), by three assailants.
Singh approached the Bombay High Court after a sessions court rejected his bail plea on July 19, 2025.
This is the first bail granted to any accused in the Baba Siddique murder case.
A single-judge bench, headed by Justice Neela K Gokhale, granted him bail with several conditions. Singh must inform the Bombay The police on alternate Mondays cannot leave Maharashtra or India without the permission of the trial court, lodge a local bond, deposit their passport and share their contact details with the investigating officer, the court said.
The court clarified that the bail order, issued with “strict conditions”, applies only to Singh, keeping all other arguments open. If you violate any conditions, the prosecution may request the cancellation of your bail, and the competent court must act immediately.
According to the police, Singh, who hails from a village in Fazilka in Punjab, allegedly played an active role in the conspiracy to kill Siddique.
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Lawyers Abhishek Yende, Surbhi Agrawal and Shubham Kahite, who represented Singh, argued that the chargesheet did not contain any incriminating material directly linking him to the crime. They said the allegations against Singh were “vague and baseless” and noted that the prosecution failed to provide primary evidence establishing his active involvement.
The lawyers also argued that the prosecution failed to present primary evidence or establish Singh’s active involvement in the case to invoke the stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).
His lawyers also argued that Singh was being prosecuted as a member of an organized crime syndicate run by the wanted defendant, but no specific acts were attributed to him in this case. They claimed that the prosecution could not prove any connection between Singh and gang leader Anmol Bishnoi alias Bhaiji, nor any role in planning the conspiracy with the other accused.
Singh’s statement argued that he was prosecuted for being a member of an organized crime syndicate led by the wanted accused, but no specific acts were attributed to him in the present case.
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The statement also claimed that the prosecution failed to establish any link between Singh and Anmol Bishnoi, nor any connection to show that the conspiracy was hatched by Singh and the other accused with Bishnoi.
The lawyers also argued that the mere statement by one of the witnesses in the case that Singh used his phone, connected his hotspot and made several calls, “clearly does not conclude that the applicant communicated with the main accused, much less any co-accused.”
Special Public Prosecutor Mahesh Sule, representing the Mumbai Police, opposed the bail plea.
Last year, Shehzeen Siddique, the widow of the late NCP leader, approached the Bombay High Court seeking a court-supervised probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or an independent agency. His plea is pending before the Bombay High Court.
