MUMBAI, Sept. 22 -- A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Monday rejected the bail plea of Aakash Brijkumar Shrivastava, 27, accused of providing assistance and shelter to Shivkumar Gautam who allegedly shot former minister Baba Siddique dead in October 2024. Special Judge Satyanarayan R Navander held that the prosecution had placed sufficient prima facie material against Shrivastava, including two confessional statements recorded under MCOCA, witness statements about his association with other accused, call records and the circumstances in which he was nabbed along with Gautam and another accused while allegedly heading towards the Nepal border on November 10, 2024. The court noted that Gautam's confession "attributes a specific role to the applicant in providing aid and harbour to the principal accused" while the confession of another accused, Harish Kumar Kashyap, allegedly detailed meetings involving Shrivastava, discussions relating to the conspiracy and the activities and movements of the group. Shrivastava's lawyer Raj Dali argued that his client had no connection with the principal accused or the alleged organised crime syndicate, had not participated in the shooting or conspiracy, and that the co-accused confessions had been retracted. He argued that there was no evidence that Shrivastava had received money for the alleged crime or harbouring an accused. Judge Navander, however, held that "retraction (of the confessions) by itself does not warrant complete exclusion of the statements from consideration at the stage of bail" and their voluntariness, admissibility and evidentiary value would have to be examined at trial. He also rejected the argument that "absence of proof of monetary consideration" could be treated as "conclusive in favour of the applicant"....