Image: Newslaundry
Legal formalities for bail granted to Siddique Kappan have now been fixed by the court, eleven days after he was granted bail by the High Court. On December 23, 2022, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to journalist Siddique Kappan in a suit filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The PMLA complaint had been filed by the ED in February 2021 against Kappan and others.
As directed by the local court, he has to provide two local sureties of Rs 1 lakh each. The sureties will be sent to local police for verification. As provided by Kappan’s lawyer, the court will expedite the verification process and will complete it within ten days. The sureties had been summoned to the court on January 3, 2023 to complete the bail proceedings.
It was further provided that the NIA court bail verification and formalities for his release in the UAPA case have been completed now. In September, he had been granted bail by the Supreme Court in connection with the charges brought up against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The bail order under the PMLA case can be read here:
Charges levied against Kappan:
On October 6, 2020, Kappan and three other people were arrested while they were on their way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh where a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped. The police had claimed that the accused was trying to disturb the law and order in Hathras, and also alleged that the accused had links with the Popular Front of India (PFI). The journalist had initially been detained by police for violations of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Several political leaders who attempted to visit Hathras were forcibly restrained by the UP police.
Under the Hathras “conspiracy case”, Kappan had been 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. Kappan, a journalist from Kerala, was merely on a professional job, covering the case. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court bench comprising of the then Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat in all the above-mentioned sections on September 9, 2022.
Heaping another stringent charge, the enforcement directorate (ED) had then filed a case against him in accordance with the anti-money laundering law. In the PMLA case, the ED had arrested Kappan on charges that he had obtained money from a foreign country without authorization and used it to commit crimes against the interests of the country.
The central agency had charged Kappan, Rahman, Ahmed, and Alam with receiving money from the now-banned Popular Front of India to “incite riots”. M. Alam was simply the driver of the vehicle taking Kappan and others to Hathras. These charges have been firmly denied by Kappan. Rahman is the national treasurer of the Campus Front of India, a student body of the PFI. Ahmed is the general secretary of the Campus Front of India’s Delhi unit, while Alam is a member of the outfit as well as the PFI.
The bail order by the Supreme Court can be read here:
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