Overview
- Special MCOCA court in Mumbai framed charges under MCOCA, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Arms Act and the Maharashtra Police Act against 27 accused, formally opening the trial.
- All 27 pleaded not guilty, with some produced in person and others via video link due to jail logistics, the court of Judge Satyanarayan R. Navander recorded.
- One day earlier, Justice Neela Gokhale of the Bombay High Court granted bail to 22-year-old Akashdeep Karaj Singh, the first accused to secure release in the case.
- The High Court found the prosecution’s material insufficient at the bail stage to prima facie link Singh to an organised-crime conspiracy, noting reliance on two calls to a co-accused, unspecified international calls, a gun photograph and cash patterns, as well as his absence from co-accused confessions.
- Police allege the plot was orchestrated by the Bishnoi syndicate, with Anmol Bishnoi named as a wanted accused in the chargesheet after his deportation to India and arrest by the NIA, while most accused remain in custody under stringent provisions.