Siddique Kappan’s bail plea: Supreme Court seeks UP govt’s response

Kappan was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, where a young Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped, and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The Allahabad High Court had dismissed his bail application earlier this month.

A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat fixed the matter for final disposal on September 9 and asked the state to file its reply by September 5. It gave Kappan three days after that to reply to the government’s affidavit.

Appearing for Kappan, senior Advocate Kapil Sibal pointed out that he has been inside the jail since October 6, 2000. “The allegation is that the Popular Front of India (PFI) put Rs 45,000 in my account for terrorist activities. That’s the heart of the allegation. There is no evidence, but only allegation”.

The senior counsel said Kappan had nothing to do with the outfit and that he had gone to Hathras to carry out his professional obligations. “I have nothing to do with it. I went to Hathras for reporting,” Sibal said on behalf of Kappan, adding he “was at one time working with a paper – Thejas daily — which had association with PFI”  but was not there anymore.

The bench asked Sibal about the other passengers in the car along with Kappan. Sibal said one of them had already got bail. He added: “.. And PFI is not a terrorist organisation. It is not even a banned organisation”. He added that many other journalists were going to Hathras and so he too went.

Appearing for the state, UP Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad said there are eight accused in the case and one of them was an accused in the Delhi riots and another in the Bulandshahr riots. She added that two witnesses were also threatened and that she will file an affidavit.

“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 Kappan’s plea challenging the high court order.

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

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

Kappan 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 PFI but Kappan said he is an individual with clean antecedents and has never fallen foul of the law.