A Lucknow court on Monday rejected the bail petition of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan in connection with a money laundering case filed against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a report in Live Law said. The rejection of the bail plea means Kappan will continue to remain in jail despite being granted bail by Supreme Court in other cases in September this year.
On September 9, the Supreme Court granted bail to Kappan, who has been in the custody of UP Police since October 6, 2020, in an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case.
The journalist was arrested in October 2020 while he was on his way to Hathras, where a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped. The police had accused Kappan of having links with the Popular Front of India, now banned, and being a part of conspiracy to instigate violence.
READ | Hathras Case: SC Grants Bail To Journalist Siddique Kappan, Orders Him To Surrender Passport
He was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.
While granting bail to Kappan, the Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, said "every person has freedom of expression".
"Every person has a right to free expression...he is trying to show that the victim needs justice... Will this be a crime in the eyes of law?" the bench said.
The bench also said that there were protests at India Gate after the Nirbhaya case, where a 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and raped in a moving bus in south Delhi.
"Sometimes protests are needed to bring a change. You know after that there was a change in laws," the top court had said.
Kappan, who is originally from Kerala, worked as a reporter for Malayalam news website Azhimukham and also held the post of secretary in Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ).