Police have registered a case against journalist Siddique Kappan and 10 others in connection with a solidarity event held in Kochi condemning the arrest of journalist Rejaz M Sheeba Sydeek.
'Our children are waiting to welcome him home. Their happiness was taken away. Can they forget their father? They are proud to say that Siddique Kappan, a journalist, is their father'
A single bench of Justice Krishan Pahal passed the rejection order on Thursday.
Kappan, currently lodged in the Lucknow district jail, was arrested two years back while he was on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, where a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being raped.
The Uttar Pradesh police had arrested Kappan along with three others, claiming they had links with the Popular Front of India and its affiliate in Mathura.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit directed Kappan to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after the release from an Uttar Pradesh prison.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat fixed the plea for final disposal on September 9.
"We state that the most precious fundamental 'right to life' unconditionally embraces even an undertrial. The consideration made herein is keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case.
Kerala journalist Sidhique Kappan walked out of jail on bail Thursday, over two years after he was arrested for allegedly trying to instigate violence after the death of a woman in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras.
Kappan was arrested on October 5, 2020 while he was on his way to Hathras, home to the 19-year-old Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men on September 14.
Kerala-based journalist Sidhique Kappan, arrested in October 2020 on the way to Hathras where a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped, has deep links with the Popular Front of India and is part of a larger conspiracy to "incite religious discord and spread terror", Uttar Pradesh government has told the Supreme Court.
During a session titled 'Sustaining Democracy; Nurturing Democracy', he claimed that tightening the already stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a way that kept people like Siddique Kappan in jail for two years without bail is one of the many ways the current dispensation has 'managed to depart from the democratic spirit of the Constitution'.
Journalist Siddique Kappan was arrested on October 5 while he was on his way to Hathras, home to the young Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will allow journalist Siddique Kappan, who was detained on October 5 while he was en route to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, to talk to his ailing mother via video conferencing.
In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the state government has alleged that Kappan is the office secretary of Popular Front of India and was using a 'journalist cover' by showing identity card of a Kerela-based newspaper which was closed in 2018.
"We are confined to health issue. It is in the interest of the state also that the accused gets better treatment," the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna observed.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday said it has arrested a "functionary" of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) from Kerala on charges of conspiracy to trigger riots in the wake of the alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit girl in Hathras in 2020.
'The arrest of Kappan, the charge sheet and the way he is being treated show that they view journalism as a criminal activity.'
'What the UP administration wanted was political mileage, and they also had the silent approval from the central government.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit medical records of journalist Sidhique Kappan who was arrested last year on the way to Hathras where a young Dalit woman had died after being allegedly gang-raped.
The FIR claimed that police recovered pamphlets "Justice for Hathras victim", six mobiles and a laptop from them, and during the initial probe it was found that they were going to Hathras with an intention "to breach the peace" as part of a "conspiracy".
'How many more months and years will we have to wait for truth to win?' 'Will anyone give us back the months and years we have lost waiting for that 'one day'?'
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked the petitioner to amend the petition and observed that they should approach the Allahabad high court for the relief.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had told the bench that "shocking findings" have emerged in the investigation so far in the case in which Kappan was arrested on his way to Hathras.
Sedition, which provides a maximum jail term of life under Section 124A of the IPC for creating "disaffection towards the government", was brought into the penal code in 1890, 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.
While most political parties have mostly stayed mum about the vicious anti-hate speeches -- reportedly calling for killing Muslims and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh -- made at the so-called 'Dharma Sansad' event in Haridwar from December 17-20 -- student organisations protested against the inflammatory and provocative speeches, calling for the immediate arrests of the accused.
Lawyer Seema Kushwaha, who is representing the Dalit woman's family, said on Thursday that they will challenge the verdict in the high court.
'India is a founding and permanent member of this 'club of shame': Journalists are murdered on account of what they write or intend to write, but nobody is finally brought to justice in such cases.'
According to a National Crime Records Bureau report, a total of 356 cases of sedition -- as defined under section 124A of the IPC -- were registered and 548 people arrested between 2015 and 2020, out of which only six were convicted.
Even as the Uttar Pradesh police arrested a journalist and three other people in Mathura while they were on their way to Hathras, home to a Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has filed a habeas corpus petition in the top court against the arrest of the journalist, Sidhique Kappan.
The raids, as per official sources, began at 3:30 am and involved as many as 300 NIA officials from across its various offices.
'I'm 79 + now, and I've been doing all this since my late 20s.' 'Sometimes the ideological war extends to the home as well.' 'Many nights I couldn't sleep when someone close to me uttered the smallest insult.' 'It would cause me a lot of pain. But one has to be honest to oneself.'
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
It's a relief to see less of hero-overtones and more soft numbers.
For those who think India's democracy is just fine and there has been no change in the last few years, perhaps it would be instructive to see what has happened on a few issues, observes Aakar Patel.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the operation of sedition law, and ruled that all pending cases, appeals and proceedings with respect to charges framed for sedition should be kept in abeyance.
'The fact that all the charges against my son are baseless and concocted, in itself, gives me all the hope.'
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