Topic: Hathras

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) said the party's Uttar Pradesh unit is taking out a ‘Nyay Yatra’ (roughly translates as Justice joruney) to raise the voices of the underprivileged and the dispossessed in the state.

International Press Institute (IPI) has called calls for the immediate release of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, and strongly condemned "the unacceptable ill-treatment he has received at the hands of the authorities as well as the apparent deprivation of his basic due process rights."

A Mathura local court in Uttar Pradesh has rejected the bail plea of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who has been charged under draconian UAPA in Hathras conspiracy case along with other seven Muslim youths.

Mohammad Alam was arrested in October 2020 along with three others- journalist Siddique Kappan, Campus Front of India (CFI) office-bearers Atiqur Rahman and Masood Ahmad while they were on their way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to report on the rape and killing of a Dalit woman which had triggered nationwide outrage and visit the family members of deceased.

"Mother's health was better when he (Siddique Kappan) came home once to meet her. But it worsened when he was taken back to jail" said Raihana Siddique, wife of arrested Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide, welcomed the decision by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district to drop a breach of peace charge against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, and urged authorities to drop all other charges against him and release him immediately.