After being imprisoned for 28 months, Delhi-based Malayali journalist Siddique Kappan walked out of the Lucknow jail on February 2, with a big smile on his face and giving the media and the others gathered a thumbs-up. He walked straight towards his wife Raihanath and eldest child Muzammil, who were waiting outside the jail for him. The 43-year-old was arrested in October 2020 by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police while on his way to cover the Hathras rape case. He was first housed at the Mathura jail in UP and later shifted to a jail in Lucknow. His wife Raihanath Kappan, backed by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), fought the legal battle for him. He was an office bearer of the KUWJ Delhi chapter at the time of the arrest.

Even after Kappan got bail in the cases registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), he had to remain in jail for want of bail surety. Currently, bail conditions require him to stay under the jurisdiction of Delhi’s Nizamuddin police station for six weeks. Kappan spoke to TNM about his days in jail, why he was not afraid, and his work as a journalist. Excerpts: 

How did you manage your days in jail?

I was mostly reading books. There were books in the prison library. My wife also used to send me books—I would get them sometimes, and sometimes, I wouldn't. That was dependent on the disposition of the officer on duty. Several books worth thousands of rupees did not reach me as the jail authorities refused to give me those. They even destroyed those books. The reasons they cited included that some were in Malayalam, while others apparently contained ‘propaganda’. They did not give me Aakar Patel’s Anarchist Cookbook saying that it propagates anarchism. They would judge books by the title and not the content. 

I read newspapers—The Hindu, The Indian Express, and The Times of India. One has to pay for this in jail. For The Hindu, I had to pay Rs 500 monthly. 

While in jail, I taught uneducated prisoners how to read Hindi. Many did not know how to read their mother tongue Hindi, and did not even know how to write their names. I helped the underprivileged and uneducated who could not afford lawyers. These prisoners were from states like West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. I used to write applications for them to submit in court. There were also Rohingyans. I used to listen to the prisoners' woes. 

Did you get food and medicines on time, especially considering that you are diabetic?

That was a problem in UP jails. No one got proper medical treatment there—not just me, but everyone. One doctor would come and prescribe medicines. The pharmacist distributing medicines was a senior convict. I still remember how when I once went to check my diabetes, he asked me to take paracetamol. We know what paracetamol is used for, so I returned it. They would not let me get my blood checked. It was a very difficult thing at the Lucknow jail.

The prisoners who availed hospital facilities were those capable of paying to get admitted. Some people who were jailed for cheating or PMLA cases were able to spend Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 every month. They would pay the doctors, who would then admit them in hospitals where they got beds and hot water facilities. They would be given fruits, cheese, paneer, eggs, etc. I have seen this in both the Mathura and Lucknow jails. 

Prisoners usually lie on gunny bags in jail. There would be around 60-70 persons in a barrack with two toilets. These would be in very bad and untidy conditions, like in a public bus station. 

When Mohammed Zubair from Alt News spoke about his experience in jail, he said that even though many people misunderstood him initially, there were inmates who were considerate upon learning about his situation, and that it really moved him. What has your experience been?

I too received compassionate treatment from the least expected inmates. They respected the fact that I was an educated professional from Kerala, and treated me with kindness. But the jail authorities never extended any such courtesy. They insisted that I speak only in Hindi, in both the Mathura and Lucknow jails. I was allowed to speak to my family over the phone for five minutes, once every three days. Even then, they initially insisted that I converse in Hindi. In the Lucknow jail, I was allowed to speak to my family over phone in Malayalam after a jail Deputy Inspector General (DIG) intervened.

While they insisted that I don't speak in Malayalam, I observed that other inmates were allowed to speak in their mother tongues like Bengali and other languages. They somehow had a problem with Malayalam. 

Your family had said that they were never allowed to meet you. How tough was it to be away from them?  

It was in the Mathura jail that I had to face many hardships in the beginning. Neither my family nor my counsel were allowed to meet me or send me even a packet of biscuits. A Malayali settled in Mathura helped me tide over those days. My family and friends used to send things through him to the Mathura jail, after the initial two or three months of imprisonment. My counsel was allowed to meet me only later. 

Siddique Kappan and Raihanath

In jail, were you reading everything written about you? Especially the Hindi and English newspapers? Do you think the narrative was against you?

I was given The Times of India in the initial days. I saw articles about me even in the editorial page of the paper, and they were truthful. It was then that I realised that news about me had received importance and that my case was being fought in the Supreme Court. It was at the Lucknow jail that I got access to The Hindu and The Indian Express. They also had good coverage of my case. But the Hindi newspapers, I would say, had a hostile attitude towards me and described me as a controversial journalist. They wrote this as their own editorial stand, without quoting anyone. I keep reading the words ‘so-called journalist’ written about me on a daily basis, even after I got bail in the PMLA and UAPA cases. 

A question that many, including the UP police, has posed is, why did Siddique Kappan go to Hathras? How would you respond to this?

On September 29, after I came home from work late in the night, I saw a heart-wrenching video of the dead body of the young woman (raped and killed) in Hathras being cremated by the police, even as the family opposed it, crying in front of a police jeep. I saw more reports of it through friends in the media and on social media. I had been working as a journalist in Delhi for 10 years, following Dalit issues and women's issues. North Indian states, especially UP, are infamous for crimes against women, with at least one case of rape reported every day. 

Hathras was no small incident. I felt that the police and the ruling government had some interest in the case. I could not forget that video, of the victim's family pleading to be allowed to do her last rites. Indifferent to their cries, the police went ahead and cremated her. It was so painful that I could not sleep that night. I decided that I should reach there somehow and report this. I asked friends in the media, but most of them said that reporters from their organisations who were doing it were being stopped. But one of the women journalists I knew managed to reach the village of Bulgadi, and take bytes, including that of the district magistrate, all very daringly. I felt that I too should go there, speak to the family and do a ground report. It was on the morning of October 5 that I set out. But I did not reach Hathras. The police took me for questioning when I reached the toll plaza before Mathura. I was a member of the Press Club of India and had shown my ID card at the time of arrest.

Some ask me why I was reporting only this particular case in UP. But I have written about sexual assaults before that. I am a media person. I have gone to Jammu and Kashmir, Bhopal, and the north eastern states to report. Just a month before Hathras, I had written about a sexual assault on an eight-year-old and her mother in Kerala, while I was home on leave. Mainstream media had mostly ignored it, presumably because both ruling and opposition parties had some interest in the case. But I had reported it in detail.

I take up all such cases against women. I had reported on the Kathua case (in which an eight-year-old was gang-raped and killed by seven men in a temple in Jammu and Kashmir) and then I had reported on the protest against it in Bhopal. When I reported about the protest in Bhopal, some political parties in Kerala said that I was writing for the BJP. Media persons are in this way labelled as BJP, Popular Front, Communist, etc. I always question the establishment, and I think that is what the media should do—stand with the people and question the authorities when they do wrong.

The special task force (STF) stated in the chargesheet that you have done a lot of 'communal reporting' on Muslim riot victims.

They must be talking about the Delhi riots of February 2020. Whatever I reported from there is available in the public domain. Around 40 articles are mentioned in the chargesheet. I went to report a week after the Delhi riots. I reported mostly on the communal harmony I witnessed there, between Hindus and Muslims. They put their arms over each other's shoulders and spoke to me. I wrote verbatim what they told me, and never tried to modify a single word or add my views.

The STF has mentioned 36 articles. What did you feel when you read the details of the chargesheet?

It has been two years and four months since this case began. Still, I have never seen this 5000-page chargesheet. Upon approaching the High Court and sessions court, I was given a 105-page chargesheet. It says there are 36 such articles, but does not say which ones they are. I have only done articles like the ones that other media persons have done in this country, that too in Malayalam. I also took videos of what the people who witnessed the Delhi riots described. 

They even say your report of the death of KM Basheer (a journalist killed in an accident in a case of alleged drunken driving by an IAS officer in Kerala) was communal.

Really? I did not know that until you mentioned it now. I have not seen the chargesheet.

It was alleged that you have links with Popular Front of India (PFI), which is a banned organisation now, and that you financially benefited from it?

I worked with the daily Thejus for four years from 2014 to 2018, when it was shut down. They (the police) say that they found the mobile number of PFI leaders on my phone. My phone contains not just the number of PFI leaders, but also that of BJP, RSS, and VHP leaders. I had sent a questionnaire to Rahul Gandhi four or five days before I left for Hathras. I have saved the numbers of sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court. They (the UP police) had issues only with the numbers of the PFI or Muslim leaders. I had sent a link of a news story on the Delhi riot to a PFI leader to get his reaction to an allegation raised against PFI in it. They used this to portray me as having links with a national leader of PFI.

A day or two before I left for Hathras, I had called a leader of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) to get his reaction on the New Labour Code. I also called Radhakrishnan, a BJP leader from Kerala, who is a BMS leader as well. Even though I took the VHP leader's interview, I am linked only to Muslim leaders. I am not afraid of that. This is a trend worldwide, be it Afghanistan or Myanmar. Wherever journalists are suppressed by the State, it raises allegations against them, like they receive foreign funding, they are involved in anti-government conspiracy, etc.

Did you believe that you would get bail? 

UAPA was one of the beats that I have covered in the past 10 years. I knew about the law and its provision that the accused has to prove not guilty of the crime they have been charged with. Hence, I knew that it would not be easy to get bail. But so many people expressed solidarity with me and I got bail as a result of all their efforts. 

What was the support your family received from the journalist fraternity in general? KUWJ issued several statements in your support. Did you get the desired support from the Kerala government and other journalists in the state? 

I did not get much support initially. However, people gradually realised that this was not an issue facing just one Siddique Kappan, and that there would be many Siddique Kappans in the future. I had doubts that even the Chief Minister had fallen for the propaganda against me. The government’s attitude towards me was not favourable in the beginning, but later changed for the better. People from the CPI(M), the Congress, the Muslim League, etc. helped in my release. Journalist friends who are BJP supporters also helped for my release, though they could not take a stand in public. But there is still a minority that uses online harassment against me. 

KUWJ, Delhi Union Journalists, Aikyadardya Samithi (Solidarity Group), Press Club of India, Committee to Protect Journalists, Wikipedia community, journalists from across the world, the list of people I should thank is long. 

Was it tough to find a place in Delhi to live after you were released on bail?

It was tough in the beginning. But KUWJ’s Delhi chapter and my other journalist friends helped me find a place and their efforts had results. 

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