The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala Muslim journalist Siddique Kappan who was arrested under draconian UAPA and sedition charges for an alleged conspiracy linked to the Hathras gangrape and murder case in 2020, his family said to Maktoob.
A bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat said that the journalist will have to stay in Delhi for the next six weeks and mark his presence at a local police station. After that, he can go back to his home Kerala but will have keep reporting to the police, the judges said.
“The appellant shall not leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without the express permission of trial court. The appellant shall record his presence in local police station every Monday. This condition shall apply for first 6 weeks,” the top court said.
“After 6 weeks, the appellant shall be at liberty to go to Kerala but shall report to the local police station in similar fashion, that is every Monday, and mark his presence in the register kept on that behalf,” it further said.
“At this stage, we refrain from dealing with and commenting on the progress of investigation and the materials collected by prosecution as the matter is at framing of charge” said the apex court.
The bench said, however, that it was granting him bail “considering the length of custody undergone by the appellant and the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case”.
“I thank everyone who stood with me and my family in this legal fight. We cannot explain the trauma we had gone through in the past two years,’ Kappan’s wife, Raihana Siddique said.
She said said she had moved a bail application with regard to the Enforcement Directorate case against him. “I hope Kappan will soon get bail in the ED case also. It was registered in connection with the UAPA case.”
