Mathura: The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested four men, including a media person from Mathura on Monday night while they were on their way to Hathras from Delhi.
The arrested include Delhi based senior journalist Siddique Kappan who is working for a Kerala- based online portal azhimukham.com.
Others who were arrested are Atiq-ur Rehman of Muzaffarnagar,Masood Ahmed of Bahraich and Alam of Rampur. Atiq is national secretary and Masood is Delhi state general secretary of Campus Front of India(CFI), the student outfit of Popular Front of Inida(PFI).
Mobile phones, laptop and some literature, which the police alleged would have an impact on peace and order, were seized from them.
Meanwhile President of Kerala Union of Working Journalists(KUWJ) Delhi unit,Miji Jose wrote a letter to Chief Minister of Uthar Pradesh, Yogi Adithyanath demanding the release of Siddiue Kappan.
"Siddique Kappan who is currently the secretary of KUWJ Delhi unit, and a senior Delhi-based journalist, working for several Malayalam media houses, including azhimukham.com.had gone to Hathras on Monday morning to cover the present situation in the area" says the letter.
The letter accuses that the Hathras Police Station and the State Police department have not provided any information so far on taking Kappan into custody.
The efforts by some advocates based in Delhi to contact Mr Kappan were not successful, says the letter.
The letter pointed out that Kappan was trying to do his duty as a reporter and demanded immediate release
KUWJ has also written a letter to Kerala Chief Minister,Pinarayi Vijayan and submitted a complaint before UP and Kerala State Police Chief.
In an another letter addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, KP Reji, President of KUWJ Kerala State Committee urged PM to take urgent action to get Kappan released at the earliest.
Meanwhile CFI demanded immediate release of its leaders."This is an example of sheer despotism", said CFI in a statement.
"The BJP government of Uttar Pradesh is abusing the police forces to prevent access to its criminal den. Police should not stop them from visiting the family of the rape victim", added the statement.