Baba Siddique murder case: MCOCA court rejects bail pleas of two

Thombre is accused of providing logistical support to the shooters when they arrived in Maharashtra, and Vohra allegedly provided his identity documents.

MUMBAI: A special court for cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of two accused arrested in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case.

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Special judge Mahesh Jadhav rejected bail pleas of Pradip Thombare and Salman Vohra after noticing that there was material available on record that both of them had knowingly assisted the Anmol Bishnoi gang execute the high-profile murder.

Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) leader Ziyauddin Abdul Rahim, also known as Baba Siddique, was gunned down by two alleged members of the Anmol Bishnoi gang in Nirmal Nagar, Bandra East, on October 12, 2024. The attack took place around 9.30 pm when Baba Siddiqui stepped out of his son Zeeshan’s office, where he had met his supporters to discuss plans for the upcoming assembly elections. As he walked 50 metres towards his car parked in the Kherwadi junction, two men – who were later identified by police as Gurmel Baljit Singh and Shivkumar Gautam – fired six bullets at him. Three bullets found their mark, two others hit his car. The sixth bullet injured a pedestrian.

The Crime Branch arrested Thombre and Vohra for the alleged support they offered to the gang led by Anmol, the brother of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, in executing the plan to kill the NCP leader. They had applied for bail to the MCOCA court, claiming false implication in the case and that they had interacted with the other accused persons without knowledge of the murder plans.

Thombre is accused of providing logistical support to the shooters when they arrived in Maharashtra, and Vohra allegedly provided his identity documents to other accused persons, enabling them to obtain a SIM card and open a bank account in his name. Both the SIM card and the bank account were allegedly used to commit the crime.

Besides, the special court also noted that there was evidence to suggest that both Thombre and Vohra were in touch with other arrested accused, and material available on record indicates their prima facie involvement. The court added that their defence of lack of knowledge can be taken into consideration only at the trial.