The Supreme Court on Monday accepted Kerala journalist Siddiqui Kappan’s plea seeking relaxation of bail conditions in the UAPA case registered against him. The condition was that he had to report to the police every week. Now the Supreme Court has given him a big relief in this matter.
The bench of Justices PS Narasimhan and Sandeep Mehta of the Supreme Court has relaxed the bail conditions imposed by the high court on Kappan, granting him bail in September 2022. The court said the order of date is modified September 9, 2022 and it will not be necessary for the petitioner to appear at the local police station. The other prayers made in this application may be considered independently.
According to PTI, on September 17, the high court had asked the state government to file its response to Siddiqui Kappan’s petition. Siddiqui Kappan was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. At that time, a Dalit woman had died after being gang-raped there.
In fact, on September 9, 2022, the high court had granted bail to Kappan, who was in prison for almost two years. While it was noted that everyone has the right to free expression, in this case several bail conditions were imposed, including that Kappan would have to reside in Delhi for the next six weeks after his release from jail and would have to report to the Nizamuddin police. Station here every Monday of the week.
The division bench had said in the order that the appellant would be produced before the trial court within three days and would be released on bail on such conditions as the trial court deemed appropriate. The condition of bail will be that the appellant remains under the jurisdiction of Nizamuddin Police Station in Delhi.
To elaborate further, the court had said that after six months he will be able to go to his native place in Malappuram in Kerala and there he will have to report to the local police station in the same manner i.e. every Monday and register himself there. name. You have to register your attendance.
The appellant (Kappan) will not leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without the express consent of the Trial Court. The appellant will appear before the Court of First Instance every day, either in person or through counsel. The appellant will present his passport to the investigation team.
In this case, an FIR was registered against four persons, including Siddiqui Kappan, under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), whose charge was related to the Popular Front of the India (PFI). Previously, PFI had also been accused of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country. The police had earlier claimed that the accused were trying to disturb public order in Hathras.
Let us tell you that on September 14, 2020, the victim died in a Delhi hospital, a fortnight after she was allegedly raped by four people from her village in Hathras district of UP. The police performed his last rites in his village at midnight. His family had claimed that the last rites were performed without his consent and that his body was not even allowed to be brought home for the last time.
