Siddique Kappan, the Kerala-based freelance journalist who was arrested in October 2020 while covering the Hathras gang-rape case, was denied bail on Tuesday by a local court in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, Live Law reported.
The court rejected Kappan’s bail application primarily based on the alleged materials collected against him during the investigation.
The court also noted that though Kappan submitted that he was there as a journalist, the press card that he produced while on the way to Hathras was of a news platform that had stopped its operations back in 2018.
Kappan has been booked under the UAPA and other serious charges.
Meanwhile, following Father Stan Swamy’s demise on Monday, leaders of the opposition parties wrote a letter to the President of India on Tuesday demanding the release of all detainees “under politically motivated cases, misusing draconian laws like UAPA, Sedition, etc.”
The case against Kappan
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On September 14, 2020, a Dalit girl was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras. She succumbed to her injuries on September 29, 2020 in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital and was hurriedly cremated by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the dead of the night. The rushed manner of the victim’s last rites, which her family alleged was done without their consent, caught the nation’s attention.
On October 5, Kappan and three others were arrested by the UP Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act while on their way to cover the Hathras case. The FIR filed against them claimed that they intended “to breach peace” in Hathras as a part of a “conspiracy”. Kappan and other alleged PFI members were booked under the UAPA and other serious charges.
Kappan moved the Mathura District Court on June 2 applying for regular bail after the Supreme Court granted him the liberty to do so.
On June 15, Kappan and three others were discharged of the breach of peace charges they were arrested under. However, as they were still booked under other non-bailable anti-terror laws, they have remained in jail.
Oppositions’ letter to President of India to release prisoners under UAPA
Following Father Stan Swamy’s demise on Monday, leaders of the opposition parties wrote a letter to the President of India Ramnath Kovind on Tuesday urging his intervention and demanding the release of all the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case along with “other detenues under politically motivated cases, misusing draconian laws like UAPA, Sedition, etc.”
The letter is signed by Sitaram Yechury (CPIM), Sonia Gandhi (INC), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Mamata Bannerjee (TMC), MK Stalin (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), HD Deve Gowda (JD-S), Farooq Abdullah (JKPA), Tejaswi Yadav (RJD), and D Raja (CPI).
Swamy, a Jesuit priest and activist who fought for the rights of Adivasis and undertrial Adivasi prisoners, was arrested in October 2020 in the Bhima Koregaon case and booked under the UAPA. He died in custody still awaiting trial.