Team Clarion
LUCKNOW — Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala arrested in Uttar Pradesh more than two years ago while reporting on the alleged rape of a young Dalit woman whose death sparked nationwide protests, was released from a UP jail on Thursday.
A Sessions Court in Lucknow on Wednesday signed orders to release Kappan on bail after accepting his bail bonds.
Kappan was expected to walk out last evening, but he could not be released since the judge of a special court that hears money laundering cases was busy with a bar council election.
Initially, Kappan was arrested under the apprehension of causing a breach of peace. Subsequently, he was booked under the UAPA alleging that he was trying to incite communal riots and disrupt social harmony in the wake of the Hathras gangrape-murder case.
In 2020, a Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. The woman had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after the incident. Her body was cremated by the police and village administration without the knowledge of her family members leading to widespread protests and condemnation of the Yogi Adityanath government.
“I will continue my fight against draconian laws. They kept me in jail even after I got bail… 28 months after a long fight. I don’t know who’s benefiting from my being in jail. These two years were very tough, but I was never afraid,” Kappan told NDTV after his release from the Lucknow jail.
After the Supreme Court of India granted bail to Siddique Kappan in the UAPA case on September 9 and Allahabad High Court also granted the same in the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), Kappan’s release was marred by difficulties in finding two local sureties.
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Photo courtesy ANI
