Jailed journalist Siddique Kappan’s mother passes away waiting for his release

The mother of Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan’s mother passed away on Friday, June 18, according to local media reports. 

Kappan and three PFI men were booked on apparently false charges of breach of peace after being arrested in October 2020 while they were on their way to the Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras village to meet the family of the Dalit woman who was allegedly raped and murdered. He has been in prison since then. 

Two days after the arrest, the UP Police had filed another case against them on various charges, including sedition and the stringent UAPA. The police later booked four more persons in the case.

In April this year, the police filed a charge sheet against all eight persons, including Kappan, in a local court in Mathura, charging them with sedition and conspiring to incite caste violence, among others.

In February, the Supreme Court had allowed Kappan to meet his ailing mother Khadeeja Kutty.

On Tuesday, a local court of Mathura had dropped proceedings against all four of them.

The sub divisional magistrate dropped the proceedings as limitation of the proceedings under section 116 (6) CrPC expired, Defence Counsel Madhuvan Dutt Chaturvedi said. 

“The accused denied the charges levelled against them. Recently, I moved an application in the court of sub-divisional magistrate, Maat, RD Ram requesting that the proceedings against the accused be dropped as the police, in the prescribed period of six months, could not produce evidence in support of their case. The court discharged the accused on technical grounds today,” the lawyer said.