Kappan was arrested in October 2020 when he was on his way to Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras where a Dalit woman had died after being allegedly raped.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — After languishing in jail for over 27 months, Kerala journalist Siddiqui Kappan is likely to walk out of jail by Thursday morning.
A Sessions Court in Lucknow on Wednesday signed orders to release Kappan on bail after accepting his bail bonds.
Kappan was arrested in October 2020 when he was on his way to Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras where a Dalit woman had died after being allegedly raped.
Mathura Police claimed Kappan had alleged links with the Popular Front of India and was a part of a “conspiracy” to instigate violence. Later, he was shifted to the Lucknow jail.
Wednesday’s development comes over one month after Kappan was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in connection with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In the release order signed by the Sessions Judge, the Superintendent of District Jail in Lucknow has been directed to release Kappan, if not wanted in any other case after obtaining a personal bond from him.
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 September last year, the Supreme Court granted him bail in all other cases. However, he could not get out of jail due to the pendency of the PMLA case. In October 2022, the Lucknow Sessions Court rejected his bail plea in the PMLA case.
However, in December 2022, the Allahabad High Court granted him bail in the case as it noted that except for the allegations that a sum of Rs 5 lakh was transferred to the bank account of his co-accused (Atiqur Rahman), there was no other transaction, either in the bank account of Kappan or in the bank account of his co-accused.
