Kerala journalist, 3 others booked for sedition two days after being held by UP police

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday booked four persons including Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan on sedition and other charges at Maant police station in Mathura, two days after they were held while on their way to Hathras.

According to the FIR, charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IT Act have also been filed against the four, who were accused by the state police of having links with the alleged radical group Popular Front of India and its affiliates.

The four were identified as Kappan, a journalist of Malapuram in Kerala, Atiq-ur-Rehman of Muzaffarnagar, Masood Ahmad of Bahraich and Alam of Rampur.

They were on Wednesday booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 124A (sedition), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious belie), according to the FIR.

The PFI has been accused of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country earlier this year and the UP police had sought a ban on the outfit.

The four were held when, according to the police, they were on their way to Hathras were a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped.