Justice R C Chavan granted bail to accused Vinod Vichare observing that he was not shown to be present on February 11, 2010, the day Azmi was gunned down in his office at Kurla.
Vichare was arrested by the police within days after advocate Azmi was shot dead.
According to police, Vichare had in his possession one of the four revolvers which gangster Bharat Nepali was alleged to have given to kill Azmi.
Nepali wanted to get rid of Azmi as he had appeared for some accused from a rival gang in another case.
"The applicant (Vichare) was not shown to be present at the time of the murder and was not shown to have played any role on that day," the court observed.
Justice Chavan observed that considering the evidence collected against the applicant and that investigation is complete and chargesheet filed, Vichare's custody during the pendancy of trial may not be necessary.
Initially, the crime branch had invoked the stringent provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. But they were later dropped by the trial court after observing that the case did not attract MCOCA.
According to the prosecution, the killing was planned and executed by Santosh Shetty, Vijay Shetty and Bharat Nepali.
Besides Vichare, the police had arrested three more associates of Nepali
