Friday, March 29, 2024

Rights violation during custody of Siddique Kappan: Fraternity Movement urges NHRC to institute inquiry

Student organisation Fraternity Movement has sought the intervention of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to stop the violation of human rights of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who is currently imprisoned in Uttar Pradesh jail under draconian UAPA.

“The condition in which Kappan is being kept is a grave and serious violation of his basic human rights. Denial of food and toilet facilities while under custody is further recognised as a form of custodial torture, and chaining of person to a bed or post, even while being imprisonment, is a violation of the letter and spirit by the Supreme Court in Prem Shanker v. Delhi Administration. The Apex Court has laid down that to handcuff is to punish humiliatingly and that it is necessarily implicit in Article 14 and 19 of the Constitution that when there is no compulsive need to fetter person’s limbs, it is sadistic, capricious, despotic and demoralising to humble a man by manacling him. The minimal freedom of movement, which even a detainee, is entitled to under Article 19, cannot be cut down by application of handcuffs,” read the letter sent by Shamseer Ibrahim, national president of Fraternity Movement.

Fraternity Movement has requested the NHRC to institute a full independent inquiry into the conditions of imprisonment of Kappan and to recommend proceedings against the offending officers responsible for violation of human rights of arrested journalist.

It also appealed to award appropriate compensation to Kappan in accordance with the gravity of the violations committed.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court of India has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to shift Kaappan who is facing grave health problems in UP Jail, to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital or All India Institute Of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for medical treatment.

After his recovery, he has to be sent back to Mathura jail.

The bench has disposed of the habeas corpus petition and has given liberty to Kappan to seek appropriate legal remedies for bail.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UP Governemnt, vehemently opposed the suggestion.

“Mr Mehta, it is also in the interest of state, and you have to protect him when he is in your custody. Let him get better medical facilities. We are confining only to the issue of medical issue,” Justice Ramana said.

Earlier, the top court heard the arguments of Advocate Wills Mathew for Kerala Union of Working Journalists, who argued that Kappan was illegally arrested and that the allegations in the FIR and chargesheet did not constitute any offence.

Meanwhile, The State of UP today morning filed an affidavit saying that Kappan’s RT-PCR test showed a COVID negative result, and that he has been discharged from Mathura hospital back to jail.

Kappan who was arrested on 5 October 2020, along with three Muslim youths including a cab driver, while he was on his way to Hathras to report on the gang rape and death of a Dalit woman tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was admitted to the hospital in Mathura last week.

The Supreme Court had been petitioned for an immediate intervention to release Kappan from Mathura Medical College to Mathura Jail ‘as his life is in extreme danger.”

“The wife of Siddique Kappan, came to know that…Kappan is chained like an animal in a cot of the Medical College Hospital, Mathura, without mobility, and he neither could take food, nor could go to toilet for the last more than 4 days, and is very critical,” read the plea by Advocate Wills Mathews

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