Tanisha Rana
Published on: October 31, 2022 at 21:15 IST
On Monday, a Lucknow sessions court denied the journalist from Kerala Siddique Kappan’s request for bail after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) brought charges against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
District Judge Sanjay Shankar Pandey concluded the hearing in this case on October 12 and reserved judgment.
Advocates Ishan Baghel and Mohd Khalid represented Kappan.
In the case brought against him by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Supreme Court granted Kappan bail in September 2022.
While travelling to Hathras to cover the gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl, Kappan, a reporter for the Malayalam news website Azhimukham, and the secretary of the Delhi chapter of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), were detained in Uttar Pradesh in October 2020 along with three other people.
He was then detained in accordance with the UAPA and then the PMLA.
Before the Supreme Court intervened in the UAPA case, he had been denied bail by lower courts and the Allahabad High Court.
He didn’t receive bail in the PMLA case, therefore he remained to be imprisoned.