Journalist and three others, arrested on their way to Hathras, booked for sedition in U.P.

 Journalist and three others, arrested on their way to Hathras, booked for sedition in U.P.

Omar RashidLUCKNOW, OCTOBER 07, 2020 14:12 IST

UPDATED: OCTOBER 07, 2020 23:42 IST

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Journalist Siddique Kappan and three others are escorted to a court in Mathura on October 7, 2020.   | Photo Credit: PTI

Yogi Adityanath vows action against “conspirators” over Hathras.

The Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday booked journalist Siddique Kappan from Kerala and three others, who were arrested on Monday on their way to Hathras, for sedition and other charges. 

The four were produced before a local court, which sent them in judicial remand. “Further action will be taken after collection of evidence in the investigation,” said Mathura SSP Gaurav Grover.

An FIR lodged against them at the Mant police station charges them under Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 14 and 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967; Sections 65, 72 and 76 of the Information Technology Act, for promoting enmity between groups and outraging religious feelings. Section 17 of the UAPA deals with raising funds for terrorist acts. 

The four were taken into custody at a toll plaza in Mathura when they were travelling in a car from Delhi to Hathras, the police said. The car was stopped after the police found their activities “suspicious”.

Besides Mr. Kappan, a journalist working with Malayalam portals based in Delhi, the other three were identified as Ateeq-ur-Rehman of Muzaffarnagar, Masood Ahmed of Bahraich and Alam of Rampur. While Mr. Ahmed and Rehman are research scholars, Mr. Alam was the driver of the car, said Ansar Indori, their lawyer.

In the FIR, sub-inspector Prabal Singh accuses the four of carrying pamphlets reading ‘Justice for Hathras Victim’ and moving towards the district to disrupt peace as part of a “big conspiracy”.

Website creation

The FIR alleged that they, along with unidentified others, were linked to a crime involving the creation of an Internet platform carrd.co and website named ‘justiceforhathras’ with the motive of gathering foreign funds to trigger caste riots.

The pamphlets recovered from the four, reading: ‘Am I not India’s Daughter, Made With Carrd’, could spread social discord and mass rebellion, the police said.

Police recovered six mobile phones and a laptop from the four.

The FIR stated that as per media reports, some “anti-social elements” were trying to trigger riots and spread caste tension and adversely impact communal harmony over the Hathras incident.

It said some people were gathering funds for spreading caste fear and triggering riots by planning events and protests.

The organisers of carrd.co were collecting foreign donations to trigger riots, the police said, adding that no legal procedure was followed in collecting these funds thus making their worthy of being seized.

“Such websites are evoking anti-national feelings among the youth”, the FIR stated and accused the platform of engaging in anti-constitutional activities.

The FIR said organisations and workers linked to the said website were using it to “spread rumours about the alleged gang rape incident” to raise funds and provoke caste violence and riots under the garb of providing justice. “Who created the website and with what goal, how much funds were so far collected and where have they been used would all be investigated”, police said.

4 linked to PFI: police

The police, after arresting the four persons, had claimed they were linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI), an outfit blamed by the State government for the violence during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act last December.

The PFI said the attempt to link it to a conspiracy to incite caste or communal violence “is completely baseless and ridiculous”.

In a fresh statement, it said, “The new rounds of allegation against Popular Front are nothing but an attempt by the Uttar Pradesh government to divert the attention away from its failure to handle the Hathras rape case”.

CM’s warning

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who had said that those who don't like development wanted to trigger caste and communal riots, asked people to “recognise those faces doing politics on the body of a poor [Dalit girl]”.

“We won't let any conspiracy succeed and all the conspirators will be unmasked. We will take strong action against such elements who want to spread caste discord and anarchy, and disrupt development”, he said.

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A year after arrest, release sought of Siddique, 3 others in Hathras case

Marking one year of their arrest on October 5, Campus Front of India urged the immediate release of Kappan, Atiqur Rahman, Masid Ahmed and a cab driver Alam

Wednesday October 6, 2021 8:58 AM, IANS

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Siddique Kappan

[Image for representation.]

New Delhi: It became one year on Tuesday since journalist Siddique Kappan along with three others was sent to jail after being arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) following the rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.

Marking one year of their arrest on October 5, Campus Front of India urged the immediate release of Kappan, Atiqur Rahman, Masid Ahmed and a cab driver Alam.

 

During a press conference, Dr L Hanumanthai MP, Rajya Sabha, from Karnataka said that if the people of India will not speak against the draconian law democracy will be gradually destroyed.

Urging the release of Kappan, he said:

"Our forefathers had not sacrificed their lives to see the current situation in India where people are being arrested and punished without any unlawful activities. People are being targeted in the name of religion and caste and this Hathras case is one such example. "

He said the UAPA Act should be scrapped because many innocent people are spending years of their lives behind bars.

"Under UAPA, getting bail is impossible. I had even raised this issue during the last Parliament session and demanded scrapping of UAPA Act."

 

Apoorvanand, Professor in Delhi University who was also present at the press conference, said that the Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a chargesheet of 5,000 pages, but the same was not provided to them.

He said the student organisation Campus Front of India leaders decided to show solidarity with the family's quest for justice.

"Every citizen of India has the right to show solidarity with victims and their families. During Kappan's arrest the UP Police said he is not a journalist but now in their chargesheet the police had stated that the kind of journalism he has been doing for the last several years is favourable to the Muslim community, inciting Muslim people against the country. It means UP Police has accepted that he was a journalist."

Sanchita Rehman, wife of Atiqur Rehman, who was also present on the occasion, said:

"In the last one year we have made several appeals that he should be taken to AIIMS for his treatment as doctors have already said but UP police did not listen to us. Today, I would request the people of India to support us. My husband did nothing wrong but he was falsely implicated by the UP government."

2 Months & Counting: Hathras UAPA Accused Wait to Get Charge Sheet

“The law states that the accused must get a copy of the charge sheet ‘without delay’. Is 2 months not delay enough?”

AISHWARYA S IYER

Updated: 02 Jun 2021, 10:00 AM IST

INDIA

5 min read

“The law states that the accused must get a copy of the charge sheet ‘without delay’. Is 2 months not delay enough?”

In ‘blatant violation of the fundamental right to a fair trial’ under Section 207 of the CRPC, which mandates that a copy of the charge sheet be provided to the accused ‘without delay’, eight UAPA accused booked in the aftermath of the Hathras rape-murder case have not been supplied the copy even two months after a Mathura court took cognisance of it, The Quint has learnt.

Of the eight accused, four men, Siddique Kappan, Atiq-ur Rehman, Masood Ahmed and Alam, were booked by UP police on their way to the Dalit victim’s home in west UP, on the allegation of a “very determined design to create caste divide and disturb the law and order situation.” Of the remaining four Rauf Sharif, Firoze and Ansad Badruddin, were arrested later, while another accused Danish has not been arrested as he moved Allahabad HC against coercive action.

The men have maintained their innocence and said they were on their way as journalists to report on the matter or as activists to sympathise with them.

This violation continues despite attempts by their families and lawyers to get the court to provide them a copy of the charge sheet. “The law states the accused must get a copy of the charge sheet ‘without delay’. Is 2 months not delay enough?,” the lawyers ask.

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Lawyer: ‘Worried Police Would Add or Subtract Evidence’

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Illegal, Immoral: Lawyer on Siddique Kappan’s Discharge From AIIMS

UP police have booked the men under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 124 A (sedition) of the IPC, 65 and 72 of the IT Act and 17 (punishment for raising funds for a terrorist act) and 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Mathura-based advocate Madhuvandatt Chaturvedi, who is the lawyer for seven of the eight UAPA accused, other than Kappan, tells The Quint from Mathura:

“I have lived and worked as an advocate in these courts for 30 years. The UP Police knows the charges are not frame-worthy. They know they do not have the evidence or material to back the charges of UAPA and sedition. Therefore, they want the accused to stay in jail and the longer accused like Kappan and others spend in jail, the more the police will see it as their success.”

After the court took cognisance of the charge sheet on 3 April, the judge fixed the next date of hearing to about a month later on 1 May. “The judge issued no order stating the accused must get a copy of the charge sheet,” Chaturvedi says. In the interim he started getting worried about the police adding or deleting information to the charge sheet. “So we kept reiterating how we wanted the court to do an indexing, to ensure pages are numbered,” he said adding that this would mean the police can not hamper with the evidence submitted.

In the meanwhile, Kappan’s lawyer, Wills Mathews kept sending emails of inquiries to the official ID of the Mathura court. “We did not get any response for a month,” he said adding that whatever he got to know about the case then, was through media reports.

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Attempt 1: Inspection Application Filed

Considering how he would not get access to the charge sheet anytime soon, Chaturvedi submitted an inspection application with the concerned department of the judiciary to at least be able to see the charge sheet.

Alam (centre) and Siddique Kappan (right) in police custody. Photo: PTI/Files

Siddique Kappan case: Scribe's lawyer to knock Allahabad HC door now

Journalist Siddique Kappan and his associates Atigque-Ur-Rahman, Masood Ahemad and Alam were arrested on October 5, 2020 when they were proceeding towards Hathras village.

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Published: 17th December 2021 10:47 AM  |   Last Updated: 17th December 2021 10:47 AM  |  A+A A-

Journalist Siddique KappanJournalist Siddique Kappan (Photo| Facebook)By PTI

MATHURA: The transfer of trial in the case against journalist Siddique Kappan and others from a court here to a special court in Lucknow was done without following due procedure, their lawyer said on Thursday and added that they will appeal in the high court against it.

Defense counsel Madhuban Datt Chaturvedi said the judge transferred the matter to the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court in Lucknow without assigning any reason for rejecting the plea of the defense counsel.

The Mathura court transferred the matter on December 13.

"Since set procedure was not followed, our clients have decided to appeal in the high court," the defense counsel said.

Journalist Siddique Kappan and his associates Atigque-Ur-Rahman, Masood Ahemad and Alam were arrested on October 5, 2020 when they were proceeding towards Hathras village where a 19-year-old woman died after allegedly being gang-raped.

They were arrested on the apprehension of causing a breach of peace but later slapped with stringent charges of sedition and provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Four others arrested separately were also included in the case.

Police have alleged that they were part of the Popular Front of India (PFI).