1999 mayor attack: HC grants 3-month remission to Chhota Shakeel aide

A division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande said the state government’s 2017 policy granting three months’ special remission did not exclude convicts involved in grave offences

MUMBAI: A Chhota Shakeel aide serving a life sentence for his role in the 1999 attack on former Mumbai mayor Milind Vaidya, in which three people were killed, has been granted a three-month remission from the Bombay high court. The court held that Mohammed Zuber Kasam Shaikh could not be denied the special remission announced by the state government to mark Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary merely because of the gravity of his crime.

1999 mayor attack: HC grants 3-month remission to Chhota Shakeel aide

A division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande said the state government’s 2017 policy granting three months’ special remission did not exclude convicts involved in grave offences.

Shaikh was arrested on June 2, 1999 in connection with the attempt on the life of Milind Vaidya. The incident had taken place late in the evening on March 4, 1999, when the Shiv Sena leader was sitting with some party workers at an open shed at Mori Road. Three persons seated in a car approached them and opened fire on the group using automatic weapons, killing three and seven, including Vaidya, were injured.

Shaikh was one of the assailants who fired an AK-56 rifle at the group. He was initially sentenced to death along with the other accused, but the Bombay High Court acquitted him. The Supreme Court later restored his conviction and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2009, with his sentence categorised to serve 28 years with remission.

He approached the high court through advocate NN Gawankar after the state government informed Nagpur Central Jail on July 14, 2026, that he was not entitled to the special remission.

The high court found that the benefit had been refused solely on the ground of the gravity of his crime. The judges said the government resolution contained no provision allowing authorities to exclude convicts on that basis.

The court further noted that by the time he approached the court, Shaikh had served 27 years and nine months in prison. The court directed the jail authorities to take immediate steps to release him if he had completed his sentence after considering the three-month remission.