New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on Wednesday, March 15, granted bail to Atiq-Ur-Rehman – one of the accused in the Hathras ‘conspiracy’ case along with journalist Siddique Kappan – after taking into account the fact that he has been in jail for over two years.
Kappan, Rehman and two others, Masood Ahmad and Mohammed Alam, were arrested on October 5, 2020 when they were on their way to Hathras. Kappan was to report on the alleged rape and murder of a Dalit woman, while Rehman and Ahmad are members of the Campus Front of India and Alam their cab driver. The police claimed that the men were on their way to Hathras to create tension and filed a case under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
On Wednesday, a bench of Justices Attau Rahman Masoodi and Renu Agarwal granted bail while taking into account the period Rehman has spent in jail and that Kappan and Alam have already been granted bail, according to LiveLaw.
However, Rehman will continue to remain in jail because a money laundering case has also been registered against him and the others.
Rehman’s family has alleged that he has become partially paralysed while in prison because of the lack of post-surgery care. He underwent heart surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi in November 2021. But the lack of post-surgery care has worsened his condition and left him paralysed, his family said.
Earlier this month, an SC/ST court in Uttar Pradesh acquitted all four accused on the charge of raping the Dalit woman in the Hathras case. It acquitted three people of all charges, finding one person committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder, under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code.