A special court on Monday rejected bail to three accused booked for their alleged role in the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique. Bail pleas of Kisan Sambhaji Pardhi, Anurag Kashyap and Gaurav Apune were rejected by the court. The detailed order is yet to be uploaded. On October 12, 2024, Siddique was shot dead while leaving the office of his son, former MLA Zeeshan, in Bandra (east). The Mumbai police arrested 26 persons in connection with the case, including the alleged shooter, while naming gangster Anmol Bishnoi as a wanted accused in the case. The police claim that the shooting was carried out on instructions of Bishnoi for Siddique's close association with actor Salman Khan and to establish supremacy of the gang as an organised crime syndicate for pecuniary gains in future through extortion in Mumbai. The accused have been booked under charges including relevant sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. The trial is yet to begin. Last week, one of the accused, Pravin Lonkar had filed a plea seeking CCTV footage of police stations where he was interrogated, claiming he was kept in illegal custody. Special public prosecutor Mahesh Mule had argued that the accused are not entitled to get a copy of the digital evidence of the CCTV footage on which the police has not relied on. Special court M K Jadhav said that Lonkar had not made any such allegations of being kept under illegal detention or was ill treated, when he was first produced in court.
