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Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, when he was released from district jail, Lucknow on February 2, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena
The Supreme Court on Monday (November 4, 2024) allowed a petition filed by Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan for relaxation of a bail condition to report to the police every week in a UAPA case registered against him.
A Bench headed by Justice PS Narasimha modified the top court’s September 2022 order which had required him to report to the local police station.
“It shall not be necessary for the petitioner to report to the local police station,” the court allowed.
Mr. Kappan was arrested in October 2020 enroute to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh following the death of a Dalit woman who was allegedly gangraped.
The Supreme Court had allowed him to be released on bail on September 9, 2022. By then he had suffered custody for nearly two years. The apex court had held that “every person has a right to free expression”.
The State of Uttar Pradesh had opposed the bail, calling Mr. Kappan an “agent provocateur” for the “terror gang” Popular Front of India who was financed and sent to incite riots in Hathras.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Haris Beeran, for Mr. Kappan, had said the case was “not prosecution but persecution”.
Published – November 04, 2024 12:01 pm IST
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