New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (November 4) relaxed a bail condition in the case of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan which required him to record his presence at a police station in Uttar Pradesh every Monday.
Kappan, a journalist, is an accused in the alleged Hathras conspiracy case and was arrested in by the Uttar Pradesh police in October 2020 when he was going to Hathras to report on a gangrape-murder case.
“Order dated 9th September 2022 is modified and it shall not be necessary for the petitioner to report to the local police station. The other prayers made in the present application can be independently agitated,” a bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Sandeep Mehta said on November 1, allowing the application filed by Kappan seeking relaxation in the bail condition, reported LiveLaw.
Back in September 2022, while granting bail to Kappan, the Supreme Court had imposed the condition that he needed to report at the local police station every Monday and mark is presence at the register kept on that behalf.
The Uttar Pradesh police had booked Kappan under the UAPA, accusing him and his co-passengers of trying to incite communal harmony riots and disrupt social harmony.
Talking about the charges of sedition, money laundering and conspiracy levelled against him, Kappan had earlier said that the government put him in jail to hide its failure in the Hathras case.
“To avoid embarrassment, the government made me a scapegoat and tried to give communal colour to the horrific incident of rape and murder,” he had said.
According to Kappan, all of the charges against him are baseless.
