Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and his family have alleged that a team of policemen tried to visit his house in Mallappuram’s Vengara at midnight, inciting fear.
According to the journalist’s wife Raihanath Kappan, police officials inquired whether Kappan would be home after midnight, stating that a team from Malappuram would visit for an inspection to verify his presence. She reportedly said the officers said it was a routine check, but it “didn’t feel routine at all”.
Kappan's lawyer Mohamed Dhanish KS called the policemen who came to the house and said that the untimely inspection was outside the scope of the order since Kappan was complying with all the bail conditions, OneIndia reported.
Speaking to the media, Kappan said the police visit to his home on Saturday evening appeared to be an act of intimidation. While police visits to Kappan’s residence in Vengara have occurred occasionally in the past, this time officers reportedly inquired at neighbouring houses before arriving at his doorstep, he claimed.
Kappan was arrested in October 2020, on his way to Hathras, where a Dalit woman was gang-raped, murdered, and subsequently cremated by the police without the consent of her family.
The UP police had initially accused Kappan of attempting to disturb the law and order in Hathras. He was eventually booked for having links with the Popular Front of India, an outfit banned under the UAPA for allegedly funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The FIR in the matter named four people, including Kappan.
In September 2022, the Supreme Court overruled the Allahabad court’s decision and granted bail to Kappan, observing that every person has the right to free expression.
The conditions for bail included that Kappan would have to remain in Delhi for six weeks, deposit his passport with the probe agency, and report to the local police station every Monday.
In 2024, the Supreme Court relaxed Kappan’s bail condition which made it mandatory for him to record his presence at a police station in Uttar Pradesh every Monday in connection with the alleged Hathras conspiracy case. The bail condition had been imposed by the Supreme Court in September 2022 while granting him bail after nearly two years in prison.
Kappan spoke at length about the UAPA case, dissent, and his jail term in an interview with Manisha Pande. Watch here.
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