After Over 2 Years in Jail, Kerala Journalist Siddique Kappan Walks Out On Bail

(Photo: The Quint)

After the Allahabad High Court granted him bail over a month ago in a Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) case, Kerala Journalist Siddique Kappan finally walked out of jail on Thursday, 2 February.

A sessions court in Lucknow accepted his bail bonds and signed orders for his release earlier on Wednesday. 

Kappan who had two cases against him, had been granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case, earlier in September last year.

A reporter for Malayalam news portal Azhimukham, and secretary of the Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), he was arrested along with three others -- Athikur Rehman, Alam and Masood -- in Uttar Pradesh in October 2020, while he was on his way to Hathras to cover the gruesome gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl.

The Dalit woman had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was allegedly gang-raped on September 14 2020.

She was cremated by government authorities in the middle of the night in her village, without informing her family.

The police had claimed that Kappan had links with the Popular Front of India (PFI) and was part of a conspiracy to instigate violence.

He was first booked under UAPA and then PMLA. The ED had filed the case against him and others in September 2021.