Journalist Siddique Kappan moves Mathura district court for regular bail

Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who is under detention in Uttar Pradesh for offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sedition, has moved a regular bail application before the Mathura District Court stressing that in the charge sheet, there is nothing to connect the applicant with the alleged offences other than bald allegations, without supporting documents, Live Law has reported.

Referring to Supreme Court order granting liberty to him to seek remedy available in law including granting liberty to file an application for bail along with other reliefs, the bail application avers that keeping him in jail on the strength of UAPA is nothing but a misuse of its provisions, more particularly when there is no iota of evidence or recovery against the accused even in the charge sheet

The plea says: "Just for the reason the applicant was seen in the company of some people belonging to PF cannot be a ground for arrest, and refusing bail, more particularly when the applicant is a journalist by profession, and being a journalist, he is bound to go and travel with all kind of people from all walks of life focusing on journalistic duties."

Siddique Kappan, was arrested along with 3 persons by UP Police while they were going to Hathras on October 3, and was subsequently booked under the UAPA alleging that he and his co-passengers were trying to incite communal riots and disrupt social harmony in the wake of the Hathras gangrape-murder case.

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court last year seeking Kappan's release on the ground that he was illegally arrested. Later, Kappan's wife also intervened in the case.

Recently, Kappan's wife wrote to the CJI saying that that Kappan, who had tested Positive for COVID-19, is chained like an animal to a cot of the Medical College Hospital, Mathura, without mobility, and that he is not able to take food, go to the toilet for the last more than 4 days, and is very critical.

The letter also stated that the Writ of Habeas Corpus (seeking Kappan's release) petition filed on 6th October 2020, which was supposed to be disposed of on 09th March 2021, had not been disposed of despite it being listed it more than 7 times.