The Bombay High Court, on Thursday, observed that there appeared to be some malafide intent behind the decision to scale down the security cover of Zeeshan Siddique, the son of the late NCP leader and former MLA Baba Siddique, who was killed in October last year.
A bench of Justices A S Gadkari and R R Bhonsale made the remarks while hearing a petition filed by Shehzeen Siddique, the widow of Baba Siddique, who sought the transfer of the murder investigation to an independent and impartial agency.
Baba Siddique was shot dead by three attackers outside Zeeshan’s office in Bandra on the night of October 12, 2024. In her petition, Shehzeen stated that her husband had repeatedly voiced concerns about his safety and had requested the restoration of police protection in the weeks leading up to his death.
Following the murder, Zeeshan was granted police security after submitting a formal application. However, Shehzeen’s counsel, advocate Pradeep Gharat, told the court that the police scaled down Zeeshan’s security after the petition was filed.
The bench then directed the police to produce the Minutes of Meeting of the committee where the decision to reduce the security cover was taken.
Public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh placed before the court a file containing threat perception reports(TPR) used by the police to assess whether to grant, modify or withdraw security protection. She denied that the reduction in security was linked to the filing of the petition.
The court nevertheless asked for specific details regarding when and how the decision to reduce Zeeshan’s security was reached.
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