Image source: indiatomorrow.net
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to urgently hear the bail petition of Malayalam journalist Siddique Kappan. , The petition has also asked permission for regular video conference meetings of the Malayalam journalist with his family members and lawyers citing Kappan’s mother’s old age (90 years) and family and children’s inability to travel to Mathura from Kerala, due to the COVID-19 virus.
“The petitioner is left with no other alternative effective remedy other than filing the present application as the applicants nor their lawyer could not meet the accused for conference and for getting the vakalatnama signed and are totally in the dark about the accused as no contacts, information about the accused after his arrest on 05.10.2020,” The petition states.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had detained Kappan, a Delhi-based Malayalam-language journalist and secretary of the KUWJ’s Delhi unit when he was on his way to cover the controversy surrounding the Hathras gangrape along with 3 others. Later they were also named in the Hathras conspiracy case.