Journalist Siddique Kappan Denied Bail in PMLA Case, to Continue to Be in Jail

Kappan, who was charged under the UAPA & PMLA, had earlier been granted bail in the UAPA case by the Supreme Court.

Siddique Kappan. 

(Photo: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

A Lucknow Sessions court on Monday, 31 October, denied bail to Kerala Journalist Siddique Kappan in a Provisions of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case, initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Although the Supreme Court had granted him bail in an UAPA case on 9 September this year, his release from jail was based on getting bail in the PMLA case too.

District Judge Sanjay Shankar Pandey concluded the hearing and reserved verdict in the PMLA case on 12 October. Now that he has been denied relief, he will continue to remain in prison.

Kappan, a reporter for Malayalam news portal Azhimukham, and secretary of the Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), was arrested along with three others 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.

Following this, he was first booked under UAPA and then PMLA. The ED had filed the case against him and four others in September 2021.

The apex court had granted him bail in the UAPA case after lower courts and the Allahabad High Court denied him bail.