SC orders UP Govt to produce Kappan's medical records tomorrow

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to produce medical records of Kerala based journalist Siddique Kappan, whose health condition worsened after being infected COVID while in UP police custody under a UAPA charge.

The court adjourned the case to tomorrow for further hearing.

A three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana was a habeas corpus petition filed by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) seeking Kappan's transfer to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, in view of a medical emergency.

Advocate Wills Mathew, representing Kappan, said that Kappan was infected with the COVID-19 virus on April 21 and taken subsequently to the hospital. "He was chained to a cot, we got to know this," he said.

The bench also heard a letter addressed to it by Kappan's wife, Raihanth Kappan through Advocate Wills Mathews, seeking immediate intervention to release Kappan from releasing him from Mathura hospital and keep him back in Mathura jail till his plea for release from jail is decided as his "life is in extreme danger"

Kappan was booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and charges of sedition by the UP police in October last year, while he was proceeding to cover the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.