After 2 Years Will Kappan See Justice?

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition seeking bail filed by journalist Siddique Kappan. The Kerala-based journalist was arrested in October 2020, while he was on his way to Hathras, UP where a young Dalit girl died after she was brutally gang-raped.

Kappan was accused of trying to incite communal riots and disrupting social harmony and was subsequently arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 for allegedly being funded by the Popular Front of India (PFI) for terrorist activities.

Earlier this month, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed his bail plea application. The Supreme Court then took up the case after a petition was filed challenging the rejection of his bail plea. On Monday, the Supreme Court Bench including the new Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhat posted the case for final disposal on September 9.

M Prashanth, Chief Correspondent of Deshabhimani and a close friend of Kappan said, " I hope that the Supreme Court will intervene positively and Kappan will get the justice he deserves. I spoke to his family - his wife and daughter. They are anxiously waiting for him to come home."

Denying the accusations against Kappan, he added, "Siddique was going to Hathras just to report about the incident. The only mistake he did was that he went with some activists to the place of this incident. He didn't have any financial support to go there, so he was trying to see if he could accompany anyone else who was going there. After his arrest, a lot of my journalist friends told me that Kappan had asked them if they were going to Hathras, but none of them were going then. That's when Kappan heard that a group of people were going there by car, so he just went along with them. However his purpose was solely to cover the incident."

He added, "There's also evidence that he spoke with his employer and they gave him permission to do the story. On his way to Hathras, he then called other journalists to find the route. If what the UP police is accusing him of was true, I don't think he would call his journalist friends to find the route. The action of the police is very much against media freedom and it's very important that Siddique should get justice immediately so that the press can continue doing its duty without fear."

Kappan is an established journalist with over 12 years experience and a bonafide member of the Delhi Press Club and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists. He has now spent over two years in jail, along with the others accused. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing Kappan said, "The heart of the allegation is that that PFI put 45,000 for terrorist activities. No evidence, no nothing, just allegations."

Adding, "PFI is not a terrorist organization. PFI is not a banned organization. I am a journalist. I was going to Hathras to cover the case."