SC grants five-day interim bail to Kerala scribe Kappan to meet ailing mother

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed five days interim bail to journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested while on the way to cover the Hathras gang-rape incident, to meet his 90-year-old ailing mother in Kerala.

The bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian while hearing the plea of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), ordered that the scribe can meet his mother, Kadija Kutty, who is in her 90s, in the southern state accompanied by Uttar Pradesh police.

The court also directed the journalist not to give interviews and not to meet anyone except his relatives, doctors and anyone else connected with his mother’s health during the five-day interim bail.

“It is submitted that the mother is said to be in a critical situation and that she is likely not to survive for many days. In these circumstances, we, consider it appropriate to permit Kappan to visit his mother and return to prison at the end of the 5th day,” the top court order said.

Kappan, who was arrested on October 5 last year, was on way to meet the family of the Hathras victim when he was picked up and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, as per the journalists’ body.

He has since been lodged at the jail in UP’s Mathura.