Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan will be released from the Lucknow jail next week, an official said on Friday, September 9, hours after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court. "Siddique Kappan has been lodged in the Lucknow jail for the past few months. He will be released from the jail once his bail order is submitted here and a release order is issued as per the Supreme Court's order," said Santosh Kumar Verma, a Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the office of the DGP (Prison).
Siddique Kappan was arrested in October 2020 under the draconian Unlawful Activites (Prevention) Act while he was on his way to Uttar Pradesh's Hathras where a Dalit woman had died after being allegedly gang-raped by dominant caste men of the neighbourhood. The Mathura police accused him of having links with the extremist organization Popular Front of India (PFI). Later, he was shifted to the Lucknow jail.
The Supreme Court, while granting him bail, said that the UP government had not been able to prove that there was anything provocative in the documents found in the car in which he was travelling to Hathras. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, said that every person has the right to free expression. “He is trying to show that the victim needs justice and raise a common voice. Is that a crime in the eyes of the law?” CJI Lalit said, when the UP government said that the documents talked about ‘how to protect from riots’.
The court also took note of the submissions of the UP government and laid down several conditions for bail, including that Siddique will have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release and report to the Nizamuddin police station in Delhi on Monday every week.
(With PTI inputs)
Watch: Raihanath Kappan speak to TNM