About nine months after Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police, his bail plea was denied by a Mathura court on Tuesday, July 6. Siddique was arrested along with three others in October 2020 when he was on his way to cover the alleged gangrape and murder of a Dalit woman in Hathras, UP. After first charging him with apprehension of breach of peace as part of the case against Population Front of India (PFI), the UP Police later booked him under the contentious Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the sedition laws.
This development comes even after charges related to apprehension of breach of peace against Siddique and others were dropped on June 15, 2021 by a Mathura court, as the police had failed to complete the investigation into the case within six months. Speaking to the media that day, Kappan had alleged that there was a ‘fake case’ against him.
Siddique recently lost his mother to prolonged illness. Ninety-year-old Khadeeja Kutty passed away on June 18 in Kerala’s Malappuram district. In February, Siddique was granted five days’ interim bail to meet his mother.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and Kappan’s wife Raihanath have been fighting for Kappan to be released since October 2020. Kappan and the three other accused had been in judicial custody since April 2021.
In April this year, Siddique had contracted COVID-19 and was allowed to be treated at AIIMS, Delhi, after the Supreme Court allowed for the same. The KUJW had appealed to the apex court, saying Siddique was allegedly being kept in inhumane conditions at the Mathura jail hospital. While allowing him to avail treatment at AIIMS, the Supreme Court refused to grant him interim bail, and said that after recovering from COVID-19, he should be transferred back to Mathura jail.