On Wednesday, the Lucknow Sessions Court approved bail orders releasing Kerala-based ‘journalist’ Siddique Kappan from the Lucknow prison. Kappan, who was detained in October 2020 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was released from Lucknow jail cell on Thursday morning after serving more than two years behind bars.
“I have come out of jail after 28 months. I want to thank the media for supporting me. False allegations were put against me. I am happy to be out now,” the journalist was quoted as saying. Meanwhile Kappan’s lawyer Ishan Baghel confirmed on Wednesday that the sessions court had signed release orders of Siddique Kappan.
I have come out of jail after 28 months. I want to thank the media for supporting me. False allegations were put against me. I am happy to be out now: Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan pic.twitter.com/ggumEzfF7l
— ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2023
District and sessions judge Sanjay Shanker Pandey asked the Lucknow jail superintendent to free Kappan if he was not needed in any other case in the release order. On December 23, 2022, the Allahabad high court’s Lucknow bench awarded Kappan bail in the PMLA case.
A single bench of Justice DK Singh granted bail to the reporter, noting that the ED’s investigation failed to assign any specific role to Kappan in the case involving an illegal transaction of money to the tune of Rs.36 crore, allegedly collected by the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) to incite fear in the country.
The Supreme Court granted bail to Kappan in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act case on September 9, 2022. He stayed in prison, however, due to a pending PMLA lawsuit.
Siddique Kappan was arrested by the UP Police on October 5, 2020 when he was proceeding to cover the Hathras case where a 19-year-old Dalit woman had died after a strangulation attempt. He was arrested along with three other persons, under stringent sections of UAPA and sedition charges for attempting to create a caste-conflict in the state amidst the ongoing Hathras case controversy.
Apart from Kappan, Siddiqui of Nagla in Muzaffarnagar, Masood Ahmed of Jarwal in Bahraich district, and Alam of Kotwali area in Rampur district were arrested. All the arrested four had connections with the radical Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) and were planning to cause caste-based unrest in the state, the police had stated.
The government in the Supreme Court had stated that Siddique Kappan was an office-bearer of the now-banned Islamist organisation Popular Front of India(PFI) and was on his way to Hathras pretending to be a newspaper journalist from a Kerala-based outlet called ‘Tejas’ that was closed in 2018.
