Red tape keeps Kerala journalist in jail a month after being granted bail
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New Delhi: Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala who was detained on suspicion of terrorism, hasn't been freed even one month after being granted bail because of bureaucratic lapses. A Bar Council election kept the District Judge of the Special Court on Prevention of Money Laundering from releasing him today, according to sources, NDTV reported.
After his sureties were examined, it was anticipated that he would leave this evening. According to sources, his lawyers have been awaiting his release order.
In October 2021, while travelling to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, to report on the situation after the alleged gang rape and death of a 20-year-old woman from the Scheduled Castes, which incited outrage across the nation, Siddique Kappan was detained.
He was charged under the strict anti-terror law UAPA and on a sedition charge. The Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case against Kappan in February 2021, alleging that he had received funds from the outlawed Popular Front of India.
In September of last year, the Supreme Court granted him bail in the terror case that was brought under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other related laws. Kappan received bail from the Allahabad High Court in a case involving money laundering in December 2022.
Siddique Kappan and the other individuals arrested alongside him are allegedly members of the PFI and its Campus Front of India student wing. According to the authorities, he was travelling to Hathras on the orders of the PFI in order to sow discord.
Kappan maintains he was travelling to Hathras for journalistic work and has denied any participation in sponsoring or carrying out terrorist attacks.
A Dalit woman passed away in a Delhi hospital in 2020, a fortnight after allegedly being the victim of gang rape in the Hathras area. The district authorities cremated her in the middle of the night in her village, which led to demonstrations and widespread criticism of the Yogi Adityanath administration.