SC relaxes bail condition on Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan in UAPA case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a plea by Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan seeking relaxation of a bail condition of reporting to police every week in a UAPA case registered against him.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimhan and Sandeep Mehta relaxed the bail condition imposed by the top court on Kappan while granting bail in September 2022.

"The order dated September 9, 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 agitated independently," the bench said.

The top court had on September 17 asked the state government to file its reply on the plea of Kappan, who was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh after a Dalit woman from there died following gangrape. On September 9, 2022, the top court granted bail to Kappan, who was in jail for almost two years, while observing that every person has the right to free expression.

It had laid down several conditions for bail, including that he would have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release from prison and report to the Nizamuddin police station here on Monday every week.

"The appellant shall be taken to the trial court within three days and shall be released on bail on conditions as deemed fit by the trial court," the bench had said in the order.

"It shall be the condition of bail that the appellant shall stay within the jurisdiction of Nizamuddin area here in Delhi," it added.

Elaborating further, the court had said, that after six months, he may travel to his native place Malappuram in Kerala and there also he will have to report to the local police station similarly, that is every Monday, and mark his presence in the register kept on that behalf.

"The appellant (Kappan) shall not leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without the express consent of the trial court," it had said, adding, "The appellant shall either in person or through lawyer shall attend the trial court on every single day. The appellant shall deposit his passport with the investigative machinery."

The FIR was filed under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against four people, including Kappan, for having alleged links with the Popular Front of India (PFI).

The PFI had been accused in the past of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country.

The police had earlier claimed the accused were trying to disturb law and order in Hathras.

The woman had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after her alleged rape by four men from her village on September 14, 2020. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village.

Her family had claimed the cremation was held without their consent and that they were not allowed to bring home the body one last time.