Hyderabad: Jailed Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan’s mother Khadeja Kutty passed away on Friday due to age-related illness. She was 90.
Kappan, who was jailed under a case linked to an alleged conspiracy to create religious enmity, visited her last in February. The court had allowed him to travel to Kerala for five days to see his ailing mother, with the stringent directive that he only interact with his mother and her doctor.
Kappan completes eight months in custody this month and is locked up in a Mathura jail on stringent anti-terror charges. He was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh to report the gruesome rape and murder of a Dalit girl.
The FIR against Kappan registered on 7 October in Mathura charges him with Section 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Information Technology Act.
Several attempts to secure bail for Kappan, including the filing of a habeas corpus petition and a bail application in the Supreme Court, have come to naught.
Kappan’s lawyers tried to move the Supreme Court under Art. 32 of the Constitution, to seek constitutional remedy for violation of fundamental rights. In May 2020, the Republic TV owner-editor Arnab Goswami had successfully used Art. 32 to seek quashing of multiple FIRs against him on charges of inflammatory statements and promoting enmity between religious groups (Section 153A of IPC). But when it came to Kappan’s case, the Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde said the court was discouraging citizens from approaching it with Art. 32 petitions.
Earlier in April, in a virtual meeting, Siddique Kappan’s wife, Rihana, said that her husband was tortured and harassed by the police.“He was asked by UP police if he used to eat beef. He said yes and was beaten up. Our family was not informed of his arrest, and we saw it from the news,” Rihana recalled about his arrest.
She added that her husband is also sick and that he has also tested positive for COVID-19 while in jail.