New Delhi: Raihanth Kappan, wife of jailed journalist Siddique Kappan, has written to the newly-appointed Chief Justice of India (CJI), N.V. Ramana, alleging that her husband has been “chained to a cot” in a Mathura hospital.
Raihanth has sought the CJI’s intervention to allow her husband to go back to the district jail in Uttar Pradesh where he has been lodged since his detention in October 2020.
Arrested on his way to Hathras to cover the gangrape case of September 2020, Kerala-based journalist Kappan was admitted to the K.M. Medical College in Mathura Wednesday morning after he tested positive for Covid-19.
According to his wife’s letter mailed to the CJI Saturday, Kappan does not want to stay in the hospital because he is “chained like an animal to a cot” and is not permitted to move. The letter adds that he has not been able to “go to the toilet for more than four days, and is very critical”.
Speaking to ThePrint, Kappan’s lawyer Wills Mathew said Raihanth Kappan found out about her husband’s condition when she spoke with him over the phone after he was moved to the hospital.
“Before he was admitted, Kappan had a fall in the jail bathroom due to weakness. He sustained injuries on his face and was unable to speak clearly,” Mathew said. “He simply told her, when she called, that he does not want to stay in the hospital, or else, he would die. He said he would prefer to remain in jail.”
The advocate suspects that Kappan has been chained because he is facing anti-terror charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Kappan was arrested on 5 October 2020, along with three others, while he was on his way to Hathras to report on the alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman.
The Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF) filed a chargesheet against him and seven others in a Mathura court on 3 April, accusing them of sedition and attempting to incite violence in the state.
‘Mathura jail authorities not responding’
Mathew told ThePrint that Kappan’s wife took the extraordinary step of writing the letter on a holiday instead of waiting to mention it before the court Monday because her request to the superintendent of Mathura jail allegedly did not receive any response.
“You do not need a judicial order to move him back to the jail. The jail superintendent can do so through administrative order,” Mathew said, while explaining the reasons for sending the letter to the CJI.
The lawyer added that a petition for Kappan’s release has been pending with the Supreme Court for over six months. The family, therefore, thought it appropriate to bring the recent development to the court’s notice.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to his UP counterpart, Yogi Adityanath, requesting him to ensure expert healthcare and humane treatment to Siddique Kappan.
Eleven MPs from Kerala have also reportedly written to CJI Ramana, requesting him to hear, urgently, the petition for Kappan’s release and issue necessary orders to move him out of the hospital in Mathura to AIIMS, Delhi.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
Also read: ‘No mother should see such day’: Stories of despair in CM Yogi’s Gorakhpur as UP fights Covid
INDIA is a SECULAR country and terrorist, rioters, criminals, naxalites whosoever wants to destroy INDIA should be given facilities like TAJ/ OBERIO / HILTON otherwise AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL will downgrade INDIA human rights and we don’t want that right.
This person is a vile and unemployed troll who gets paid by the Bharatiya Garbage Party’s IT Cell. Ignore his comments. All news sites are full of his comments spreading hate.
Listen paid coolie, the only crime of this journalist was to travel to god forsaken hathras to report and do his job. Accusations against him are as phony as your job of posting propaganda.
You mean being secular ie religious tolerant is promoting terrorism and riots!…. Bloody Educated Illiterate
A stain on judicial conscience to have left this case pending for more than six months.