The Uttar Pradesh Police have filed a 5,000-page charge-sheet under anti-terror laws against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested in October last year while he was on his way to Hathras to cover the gang-rape of a Dalit girl in the aftermath of her death. The UP Police have also charged seven others including three, who were arrested along with Kappan under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA.
Kappan has been in a UP jail since his arrest in October last year.
According to news agency PTI, the FIR against them claimed that they were going to Hathras with an intention ‘to breach the peace’ as part of a ‘conspiracy.’
Kappan, who worked for the Malayalam news website Azhimukham, was on his way to Hathras to cover the gang-rape and death of a 19-year-old Dalit victim when he was arrested by the UP Police in October. He was booked under draconian charges of sedition and UAPA. The UP Police had accused Kappan of intending to inflame communal tension.
The journalist’s wife has lashed out at the Indian judiciary for its biases. “I feel that even the judiciary has abandoned us. There is no equitable distribution of justice. Justice is not for all, only for some. How did things move so fast in the case of Arnab Goswami?” Indian Express had quoted her as saying.
This was after the Supreme Court had asked Kappan’s lawyer Kapil Sibal to seek bail from a lower court even though India’s top court had shown the extraordinary speed to order Arnab Goswami’s release from a Mumbai jail in the abetment to suicide case.