New Delhi: Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan, who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court, will continue to remain in a jail in Lucknow as a case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate against him is still pending, officials of the prison department told the news agency PTI.
A court in Lucknow on Monday issued the release order of Kappan, who has been in jail almost two years since his arrest in October 2020 while he was on his way to report from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, where a Dalit teenager had died after allegedly having been gang-raped by ‘upper’ caste men.
He was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.
“Kappan will continue to remain in jail as a case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate is still pending,” DG Jail PRO Santosh Verma told PTI.
Lucknow Jail senior superintendent Ashish Tiwari told Times of India, “Once he obtains bail in the ED case, he will be released.”
Kappan’s lawyer Harris Beeran too told The Wire that he is aware that in spite of both the Supreme Court and Lucknow judge setting down conditions for his release, the PMLA case too would require bail for him to walk free.
Last year, the ED had claimed that the Popular Front of India wanted to “incite communal riots and spread terror” in the aftermath of the Hathras incident. Its charge-sheet had named Kappan, along with others.
The Supreme Court on Friday had granted bail to Kappan.
The apex court had said that he will have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release from prison and report to Nizamuddin police station in the national capital on Monday every week. The court also said that he would be at liberty to appear in hearings for bail in the PMLA case.
While ordering his release, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Anurodh Mishra had directed Kappan to furnish two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each and a personal bond of the same amount. The judge also sought an undertaking from the journalist that he would not breach the conditions imposed on him by the apex court.
The judge also sought an undertaking from the journalist that he would not breach the conditions imposed on him by the apex court.