Hathras case: Siddique Kappan moves Supreme Court for bail, plea likely to be heard on Friday

Kappan’s plea, filed through advocate Harris Beeran, was mentioned before a bench presided by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. Beeran said that the top court has agreed to hear it on Friday, August 26. The petition challenges the August 2, 2022, order of the Allahabad High Court dismissing his bail application.

Siddique Kappan, arrested by UP police & facing UAPA charges, moves SC seeking bail. Challenges Allahabad HC order rejecting his bail plea. SC agrees to hear it on August 26. @IndianExpress

— Ananthakrishnan G (@axidentaljourno) August 24, 2022

“As a result of the rejection of the application, the Petitioner, a journalist of 12 years experience, who has also served as the secretary of the Delhi chapter of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists continues to be incarcerated. Presently, the Petitioner has spent almost two years behind bars, on the basis of trumped up charges, only because he sought to discharge his professional duty of reporting on the infamous case of the Hathras rape/murder,” said the plea.

Kappan contended that the HC judgement “grossly overlooks the well-established principles regarding the grant of bail, and without affording any cogent reasons, has mechanically dismissed” his “bail application”.

Kappan and others were apprehended by the UP Police on October 5, 2020, from Mathura, while on way to Hathras where rape and murder had occurred.

While Kappan claimed that he was going to Hathras to report on the incident, the UP Police contended that they were financed to go there by a terrorist gang to spread disharmony in society.

He also said the prosecution had not provided any evidence of receipt of any funds from any terrorist gang as alleged. Kappan said he was charged with false and communal reporting during the Northeast Delhi riots, and that he was in contact with persons spreading riots in the national capital and added that this was baseless.

The police accused him of working on the instructions and agenda of the Popular Front of India (PFI) but Kappan said he is an individual with clean antecedents, and has never fallen foul of the law.