Hathras Horror: UP Police Invoke UAPA Against Journalist, Student Activists

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Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan.

Journalists’ unions and activists have denounced the arrest of Kappan, secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), saying the police action amounted to barring a journalist from discharging official duty

Clarion India

NEW DELHI — The Uttar Pradesh Police have slapped sedition charges and invoked UAPA on Malayali journalist Siddique Kappan and three others from Campus Front a day after they were arrested on Monday in Mathura while they were on way to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh from  Delhi to Hathras to report on a story.

The police have invoked Section 17 of UAPA deals with raising funds for terrorist acts, the Hindu reported

The four, including two student activists, were arrested on Monday in Mathura while they were on their way to a village in Hathras district where a young Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped on September 14.

Journalists’ unions and activists have denounced the arrest of Kappan, secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), saying the police action amounted to barring a journalist from discharging official duty.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a global media watchdog, Wednesday called on the UP government to immediately release Kappan and drop any inquiry against him.

Kappan, a regular contributor of news portal Azhimukham, was travelling to Hathras to cover the alleged gang-rape and subsequent murder of the 19-year-old woman that has sparked nationwide outrage.

“Police in Uttar Pradesh must stop obstructing journalists from reporting on a matter of national importance,” said CPJ’s senior Asia researcher, Aliya Iftikhar. “Authorities should immediately release Siddique Kappan and allow him to do his job.”

Azhimukham editor K N Ashok told CPJ that Kappan had informed him that he was travelling to Hathras to report on the latest situation in Hathras, adding that later Kappan’s phone was switched off when he tried to reach him.

The Uttar Pradesh police haven’t clarified the exact nature of the investigation against Kappan, nor have they identified where Kappan is being detained or informed his family or colleagues, according to a habeas corpus petition filed by the KUWJ in the Supreme Court. KUWJ has also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding Kappan’s immediate release, according to CPJ.

Kappan was arrested shortly after the UP government initiated 19 police investigations into claims that there was a “conspiracy to defame the state government” and instigate caste-based violence over the alleged gang-rape and murder in Hathras, according to the Hindu.

On October 2, news channel India Today accused UP authorities of illegally tapping the phone of its reporter Tanushree Pandey and leaking the recording of her telephonic conversations with the victim’s family, on social media to intimidate her. Pandey broke the story of UP authorities cremating the body of the victim on September 29 in Hathras without informing the family.

From October 1 to 3, local authorities in Hathras barred journalists from entering the district to prevent “meddling in government investigations,” according to the Telegraph newspaper. The police stopped journalists Barkha Dutt of Mojo Story, a YouTube news channel, as well as Pratima Mishra and Manoj Adhikari of ABP News from meeting the victim’s family, and forcefully escorted them out of the area.

Awanish Kumar Awasthi, additional chief secretary with the UP government, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment over the messaging app. Hitesh Awasthi, director-general of police in UP, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s text message requesting comment.

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Clarion India - News, Views and Insights about Indian Muslims, Dalits, Minorities, Women and Other Marginalised and Dispossessed Communities.

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