Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Siddique Kappan, the journalist from Kerala who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on his way to cover the gang-rape and murder of a 19 year old girl in Hathras
Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Siddique Kappan, the journalist from Kerala who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on his way to cover the gang-rape and murder of a 19 year old girl in Hathras which had attracted nationwide attention in 2020. He was arrested on 5th October 2020 and was charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and has been in jail since then (23 months). He worked as a reporter with Malayalam news portal ‘Azhimukham’ and was also the secretary of the Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ).
During the hearing of his bail plea, the three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit and Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha said, “Every person has a right to free expression. He is trying to show that victim needs justice and raise a common voice. Will this be a crime in eyes of law?” Siddique Kappan has been directed by the apex court to stay in Delhi for next six weeks and report to a local police station in Nizamuddin every Monday after which he can proceed to his hometown of Malappuram in Kerala from where he must not leave and report to the police station every Monday. The Supreme Court also marled that he needs to surrender his passport to the investigating agency during the course of the trial.
The Uttar Pradesh government stated in court today that Kappan was paid to provoke violence and that he is not an accredited journalist. "He was attempting to incite a riot and use explosives; he is a member of the PFI, which is a terrorist organization," said Mahesh Jethmalani, UP's counsel. The evidence against Siddique Kappan was called into question by the Supreme Court. "What was found with Kappan? No explosives were found, material was discovered in the car rather than with him, and they were not used for propagation," Justice Lalit explained.
The earlier arrest and the bail granted to Kappan has once again brought the UAPA on forefront. There are different opinions on the nature of UAPA after an amendment made to it in 2019 among different sections of the society and is one of the most debated and discussed law in the country. The original law was enacted in 1967. Under the amendment made to it in 2019, any individual can be declared as a terrorist who is found indulging in terrorist activities or in association with any terrorist organization. The chart below shows the number of cases registered under unlawful activities prevention act in last five years.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The lowest numbers of cases (796) under the UAPA were registered in 2020. The reason behind fall in cases can be attributed to the covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown imposed due to it. The year 2019 witnessed the registration of highest number of cases under the act. One of the major reasons behind this was the nationwide protests organized against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. Large number of activists, protestors and students were arrested under the UAPA during the protests in 2019. 2018 also came as a year with high number of cases under UAPA with the registration of 1182 cases. The latest data released by the NCRB for the year 2021 shows that 814 cases were registered under the unlawful activities prevention act. Maximum cases were registered in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir (289), Manipur (157), Assam (95), Jharkhand (86) and Uttar Pradesh (83).
