Breaking: Supreme Court Issues Notice On Bail Plea Of Siddique Kappan, Hearing Fixed On September 9
The Supreme Court today issued notice on the plea seeking bail, filed by Journalist Siddique Kappan who was arrested in connection to the Hathras conspiracy case.
The Bench comprising of Chief Justice U. U. Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat directed the state of UP to file its reply on Monday and said that the case will be disposed of on the next hearing i.e. September 9.
Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dushyant Dave appearing for Kappan told the Court that the only substantial allegation against Kappan is that he received 45 Thousand rupees in his bank account from the Popular Front of India. Sibal told the Court that PFI is not a banned organisation. He also told the Court that Kappan was earlier working with a newspaper of the PFI but is no longer working for them. He said that Kappan went to Hathras like any other journalist.
Senior Advocate Garima Prasad appearing for the state of UP told the Court that she had not been served a copy of the bail plea.
Kappan had applied for bail in the matter before the Allahabad High which was dismissed by the Court observing that the defence taken up by him that he is a journalist and only owing to his professional duty, he wanted to visit the place of Hathras incident stands nullified by the averments in the charge-sheet and the persons he was arrested with while travelling in a car. The tainted money being used by the applicant and his colleagues cannot be ruled out, the Court had said.
Kappan had sought bail under Sections 153-A, 295-A, 120B of the Indian Penal Code Sections 17, 18 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Sections 65 and 72 of I.T. Act. Kappan along with other co-accused was arrested by the UP Police while they were travelling to report the Hathras murder-rape incident. Kappan and the other co-accused were charged under UAPA alleging that they were trying to incite communal violence and disrupt social harmony in the wake of the Hathras incident. Kappan was denied bail by the local Court of Mathura in July last year while taking into consideration the nature of the crime allegedly committed by him.
