Mathura court rejects journalist Siddique Kappan's bail plea

Reiterating the allegations made against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, a Mathura court today rejected his bail plea.

Kappan was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on October 5 last year when he was on his way to report on the Hathras gangrape and murder. He was booked under charges of sedition and the UAPA.

The court also said that although Kappan had submitted that he wanted to proceed to Hathras in the capacity of a journalist, the identity card which was found with him was of a news platform that had stopped its operations in 2018, Live Law reported.

Kappan and his three co-accused have been accused of “promoting enmity within the society and affecting the communal harmony prevailing in the society". Additionally, as the court reiterated while denying him bail, he is alleged to have received foreign funding to damage the integrity of the nation and that he “indulged in anti-national acts” as a purported worker of the Popular Front of India.

In June, a Mathura court had dropped breach of peace charges against the journalist as the police failed to complete the inquiry within the prescribed period of six months.

Since his arrest last year, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists and Kappan's wife Raihanath have been petitioning for his release.