New Delhi: A Lucknow court on February 1, Wednesday, signed orders to release journalist Siddiqui Kappan, more than a month after he was granted bail by the Allahabad high court in a money laundering case.
According to LiveLaw, the sessions court accepted his bail bonds and he is likely to walk out of jail either by Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
He was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to cover the Hathras gang-rape case in Uttar Pradesh, where a Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by four ‘upper caste’ men.
On September 9, 2022, the Supreme Court had granted him bail in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case, saying that “every citizen has the right to free expression”. However, he remained in jail in Lucknow in the money laundering case, which was slapped against him by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021.
In response to the Supreme Court’s order, the UP government had opposed his bail alleging that he has “deep links” with the Popular Front of India, which is not a banned organisation.
Kappan was booked under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (for promoting enmity between groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 14 and 17 of UAPA, Sections 65, 72 and 76 of the Information Technology Act.