5 days ago
Court denies bail to photographer in Baba Siddique murder case: He aided killers
A special court in Mumbai on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of 27-year-old Chetan Dilip Paradhi, accused in the high-profile murder case of former MLA Baba Siddique, observing that he knowingly assisted the assailants and facilitated their operations at the behest of gangster Anmol a photographer from Thane, is Accused No. 7 in the case and is currently in judicial custody. He is alleged to have harboured the two shooters involved in the killing and provided them with logistical support, including shelter and practice space for dismissing his bail application, Additional Sessions Judge Mahesh K Jadhav, presiding over the Special MCOCA Court, held that Paradhi failed to meet the stringent twin conditions for bail under Section 21(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The court cited two confessional statements submitted in the case, which indicated that Paradhi "with knowledge provided assistance and rendered his service to the gang leader Anmol Bishnoi for facilitating the murder of Baba Siddiqui".Appearing for Paradhi, advocate Amey Pitale argued that his client was a working photographer with no criminal intent or knowledge of the conspiracy. The defence claimed Paradhi merely gave a lift to acquaintances and that the mobile phone seized from him was broken, lacked a SIM card, and contained no recoverable data. They also highlighted procedural gaps, including the absence of a test identification parade and inconsistencies in witness Special Public Prosecutor Mahesh Mule and Advocate Pradip Gharat, representing Siddique's wife, strongly opposed the bail plea. They presented call data records, Paradhi's own recovery memorandum, and the confessions of the co-accused as evidence of his direct role in aiding the shooters, identified as Shivkumar and Dharmaraj, who were allegedly dispatched by Bishnoi to execute the Jadhav further noted that Paradhi had prior criminal antecedents and a history of association with the co-accused in earlier cases. "There are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is guilty of such an offence," the court Paradhi's claim of accidental or peripheral involvement, the court concluded that he had actively facilitated the crime by knowingly sheltering the shooters and enabling their preparation, including shooting Baba Siddique's son, Zeeshan Siddique, has also received multiple death threats referencing the broad daylight murder of his father which took place in October last year. - EndsMust Watch
IN THIS STORY#Mumbai#Nationalist Congress Party#Maharashtra
