Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Keralite journalist Siddique Kappan today in a case filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh Granted him bail. He had moved to the High Court seeking bail earlier in October 2022, after Lucknow Court denied him bail in the case.
The PMLA case had been filed against Kappan and others by the Enforcement Directorate in February 2021. He had received bail in September for a case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. However, he remained in jail due to the ED case, for which he was denied bail in October by a Lucknow sessions court.
Kappan had first been arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras to report on the gangrape and subsequent death of a Dalit woman. He was booked under the UAPA and charged with sedition. Kappan remained in jail for over 700 days before the Supreme Court granted him bail in the UAPA case on September 9. The UP government believes he was part of a larger conspiracy to ‘foment religious discord and spread terror in the country’. Notably, the Supreme Court, on September 9, granted bail to Kappan, who has been under the custody of UP Police since October 6, 2020, in connection with the Hathras Conspiracy case.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat passed the order while allowing the appeal filed by Kappan against the Allahabad High Court’s order denying him bail. Kappan was kept under custody for alleged offences under Sections 17/18 of UAPA, Sections 120B, 153A/295A IPC, 65/72 IT Act for alleged conspiracy to incite riots following the gangrape-murder of a Dalit minor girl in Hathras. In the ED’s PMLA case, Kappan was accused of receiving money from the Popular Front of India to ‘incite riots’. In its chargesheet against Kappan, the UP police had cited a cash transfer in Kappan’s bank account as ‘proof’.
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