A Mathura court in Uttar Pradesh extended the judicial custody of Siddique Kappan, a Delhi based Malayali journalist and three others who were arrested on their way to a village in Hathras to meet the family of an alleged gang-rape- murder victim. Mathura Chief Judicial Magistrate Anju Rajput extended the judicial custody of the Siddique Kapan, Atiqur Rahman, Alam and Masood after they were produced before a court through video conferencing on the completion of the earlier period of their judicial custody.
The four were arrested on October 5 under section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code on the suspicion of their intention to commit some cognisable offence. They were later booked under sections 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground religion etc) and 295A (committing deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code. The four were remanded to 14-day judicial custody on October 7. They have also been booked under various other offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Information Technology (IT) Act.
The court extended the judicial custody on Tuesday, saying that the police were yet to complete the probe into the sedition and terror case against them, said APO Brajmohan Singh. He said the magistrate extended their remand till November 2.
A Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in Mathura on Monday ordered the four to furnish a surety bond to keep peace in society. Pending the furnishing of the surety bond worth Rs one lakh each for their release, the SDM Mant sub-division in Mathura remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.
Siddique Kappan hails from Vengara district of Malappuram in Kerala. He writes for Malayalam news portal Azhimukham. He had worked in Malayalam dailies, Thejus and Thathsamayam.
With PTI inputs