News Analysis India

Tag: Hathras Case

  • Journalist Siddique Kappan denied bail by Allahabad High Court in UAPA case

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested along with three others in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras after the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl. Kappan and his associates were booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

    The bail plea of the journalist was rejected by the single judge bench comprising Justice Krishan Pahal who had reserved the order after the arguments were concluded by accused and state counsels on August 2.

    A Mathura court had rejected Kappan’s bail plea after which he had approached the High Court.

    Justice Pahal attributed the rejection of bail plea to a prima facie case being established by the prosecution. The judge said travelling with co-accused who did not belong to the media fraternity as well as tainted money being used by him and his accomplices were crucial circumstances going against him.

    “The tainted money being used by the applicant and his colleagues cannot be ruled out,” said the single-judge. The Court also rejected Kappan’s claim that he was visiting Hathras to fulfil his journalistic duty by saying that it was nullified by the claims made by the prosecution in the charge sheet.

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    The prosecution’s allegations were that Kappan and the co-accused were travelling to Hathras with an intention to disturb harmony in the area. It was stated that they were collecting funds to run a website full of misinformation and to incite violence.

    They were charged under Sections 17 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and Section 124A (sedition), Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 65, 72 and 75 of the Information Technology Act.

    However, Kappan’s counsel denied all allegations, stating that he was going to Hathras to discharge his duty as a professional journalist, when he was illegally detained by the UP Police in violation of his fundamental rights.

    Additionally, it was stated that Kappan never used any platform to spread disharmony or further class or communal conflict. On the contrary, the prosecution argued that Kappan, a resident of Kerala, had nothing to do with Hathras incident and was there with mala fide intent. It was also submitted by the prosecution that Kappan had conducted a secret workshop with an aim to incite riots across the country by raking up issues of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Babri Masjid demolition.

    While rejecting the bail plea, the Court said that owing to the nature of the offence, the evidence on record, and considering the complicity of the accused and the severity of the punishment, the Court found Kappan’s bail application to be devoid of merit, and dismissed it.

    LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested along with three others in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras after the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl. Kappan and his associates were booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

    The bail plea of the journalist was rejected by the single judge bench comprising Justice Krishan Pahal who had reserved the order after the arguments were concluded by accused and state counsels on August 2.

    A Mathura court had rejected Kappan’s bail plea after which he had approached the High Court.

    Justice Pahal attributed the rejection of bail plea to a prima facie case being established by the prosecution. The judge said travelling with co-accused who did not belong to the media fraternity as well as tainted money being used by him and his accomplices were crucial circumstances going against him.

    “The tainted money being used by the applicant and his colleagues cannot be ruled out,” said the single-judge. The Court also rejected Kappan’s claim that he was visiting Hathras to fulfil his journalistic duty by saying that it was nullified by the claims made by the prosecution in the charge sheet.

    ALSO READ | India tops list of nations seeking blocking tweets by journalists, news companies: Twitter report

    The prosecution’s allegations were that Kappan and the co-accused were travelling to Hathras with an intention to disturb harmony in the area. It was stated that they were collecting funds to run a website full of misinformation and to incite violence.

    They were charged under Sections 17 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and Section 124A (sedition), Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 65, 72 and 75 of the Information Technology Act.

    However, Kappan’s counsel denied all allegations, stating that he was going to Hathras to discharge his duty as a professional journalist, when he was illegally detained by the UP Police in violation of his fundamental rights.

    Additionally, it was stated that Kappan never used any platform to spread disharmony or further class or communal conflict. On the contrary, the prosecution argued that Kappan, a resident of Kerala, had nothing to do with Hathras incident and was there with mala fide intent. It was also submitted by the prosecution that Kappan had conducted a secret workshop with an aim to incite riots across the country by raking up issues of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Babri Masjid demolition.

    While rejecting the bail plea, the Court said that owing to the nature of the offence, the evidence on record, and considering the complicity of the accused and the severity of the punishment, the Court found Kappan’s bail application to be devoid of merit, and dismissed it.

  • Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan among 8 PFI activists chargesheeted in UP

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The five-member team of the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police filed a 5,000-page chargesheet against eight members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Mathura court on Saturday. 

    The Mathura Additional District Judge and Sessions Court has posted the matter for the next hearing on May 1.

    Those named in the charge-sheet are Siddique Kappan (journalist), Atiqur Rehman, Rauf Sharif, Mohammad Danish, Alam, Masood Ahmad, Feroz Khan, and Asad Badruddin. All the accused have been charges with receiving funds to the tune of Rs 80 lakh from financial institutions based in Muscat and Doha for the purpose of creating unrest and riots in UP.

    Initially, the STF had arrested five PFI members including Siddique Kappan in Mathura on October 5, 2020, while they were on their way to Hathras allegedly to meet the family of the Dalit girl who was gang-raped in Boolgarhi village leading to nationwide outrage.

    As per the highly-placed sources, the STF has indicted the PFI members for plotting caste riots in Hathras and adjoining districts in the aftermath of the gang-rape of the Dalit girl who was also beaten up by the perpetrators with an intent to kill her. The victim, later, succumbed at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi on September 29, 2020.

    The sources claimed that one among those named in the charge sheet by the STF included Mohammad Danish, who was also arrested by the Delhi Police for hatching a conspiracy to incite communal riots in northeast Delhi.

    ALSO READ | Campus Front’s Rauf funded Hathras trip of scribe Siddique Kappan, others: ED

    The STF sources claimed that those named in the chargesheet were booked under the charges of sedition, provocation with intent to cause riots, injuring or defiling places of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class, raising funds for the terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Information Technology Act.

    On October 5, the UP Police had arrested the five PFI activists accusing them of having the intention to breach the peace. Journalist Siddique Kappan’s family in Kerala has conducted multiple protests in the state alleging foul play in the arrest and seeking his release.

    The PFI members — Kappan, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Masood Ahmad, Alam and Rauf — arrested earlier were booked under the stringent UAPA. The FIR against them claimed that they were going to Hathras with an intention “to breach the peace” as part of a “conspiracy”.

    Later, two more PFI activists — Feroz Khan and Asad Badruddin — were also held by the Special Task Force (STF) that had busted a terror plot on February 16, 2021, in Lucknow. A huge cache of explosives, arms, and incriminating documents was recovered from their possession. They were planning for a serial blast in Uttar Pradesh.

    During the last hearing on March 31, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (First) Anil Kumar Pandey in Mathura had posted the matter for hearing on April 3 as the STF had sought two more days to file chargesheet against them. Since the time limit to submit a chargesheet would expire on April 4, the STF filed it on Saturday.

    All the accused PFI members are lodged in a Mathura jail.

  • Hathras case: Court accepts CBI chargesheet against 4 accused, next hearing on March 2

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The Special Court (SC/ST court) of Hathras on Friday framed charges against the four accused of the Hathras gangrape and murder case after hearing out both sides.

    The CBI had framed gangrape and murder charges against the four accused — Sandeep, Ravi, Ramu, and Lavkush.

    During the hearing, the victim’s family, the four accused, and CBI investigative officer DySP Seema Pahuja was present in the court. The accused were brought from Aligarh Jail under tight security. The court has posted the matter for March 2 for the next hearing.

    The Special Court had already rejected bail applications of the three accused — Ravi, Ramu, and Lavkush. The fourth accused Sandeep is yet to apply for bail. After framing of charges, all the four accused were sent back to jail.

    It may be recalled that a Dalit girl, 19, was gang-raped and brutalised allegedly by the four youths of Boolgarhi village under Chandpa police station area in Hathras district on September 14, 2020. The incident took place when the victim had gone to the field along with her mother to collect fodder for thecattle. 

    ALSO READ | ED files first chargesheet against PFI; claims it wanted to spread terror after Hathras rape case

    After the incident, the girl was admitted to a district hospital in critical condition and was later taken to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of AMU in Aligarh. But as her condition deteriorated, she WAS shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi ON September 28, 2020, but succumbed to her injuries onSeptember 29, 2020. 

    All the four accused were arrested before her death on September 23, 2022. The girl had given a dying declaration, on September 22, 2020, before a magistrate confirming gang rape and physical assault by the accused.

    The case had triggered a nationwide outrage following the cremation of the victim’s body by the Hathras police in a hush-hush manner against the family’s wish in the dead of night on September 30, 2020. Yogi Adityanath’s government then recommended a CBI probe into the case.

    Following the investigation, the CBI filed a charge-sheet in 67 days against the four accused in the Special Court under Sections 376, 376A, 376D, 302 of the IPC, and Section 3 (2)(5) of the SC/ST Act.

  • ED files first chargesheet against PFI; claims it wanted to spread terror after Hathras rape case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed its first chargesheet against Popular Front of India and its students’ wing on money laundering charges, claiming its members wanted to “incite communal riots and spread terror” in the aftermath of the last year Hathras gang rape case.

    The central agency has been probing the Popular Front of India (PFI), formed in 2006 in Kerala and headquartered in Delhi, since 2018.

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently started investigations into the Islamic organisations’ alleged role in “funding” anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests and the communal riots which took place in Delhi last year.

    The prosecution complaint or chargesheet was filed before a special PMLA court in Lucknow on Wednesday under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    Those named include PFI member and students’ wing Campus Front of India’s (CFI) national general secretary K A Rauf Sherif, CFI national treasurer Atikur Rahman, Delhi CFI general secretary Masud Ahmed, a journalist “associated with PFI” Siddique Kappan, and Mohammed Alam, who is a member of the CFI and the PFI.

    The special court took cognisance of the ED chargesheet and issued summons to the five accused for appearing before it on March 18 and face trial, official sources said on Thursday.

    Rauf was arrested by the ED from an airport in Kerala in December last year while he was “trying to flee the country”.

    The rest four were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Mathura last year while they were on their way to Hathras after the alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman in that district.

    The ED claimed in a statement issued here that the four were going to “disturb communal harmony, incite violence and spread terror.”

    A fresh PMLA case was filed by the ED against PFI operatives on the basis of a Uttar Pradesh Police FIR.

    The agency said its probe found “that the visit (to Hathras) of these PFI/CFI members was under the instructions of Rauf Sherif and funds for the same were also provided by him.”

    “ED investigation has established that Rauf Sherif entered into a criminal conspiracy with PFI members stationed in Gulf countries to fraudulently transfer money raised/collected abroad by PFI in the guise of payments related to business transactions,” it said.

    “The money was laundered through different layers and eventually reached Rauf Sherif and his associates belonging to PFI and CFI,” the ED said.

    Calling these funds of Rs 1.36 crore as “proceeds of crime, the agency said that it was obtained as a result of criminal activity relating to criminal conspiracy.

    Part of the funds was used by PFI and CFI office bearers, members, activists in India “for their continuous unlawful activities over the time which included, but were not limited to, funding of anti-CAA protests, inciting violence and fomenting trouble which led to Delhi riots in the month of February, 2020, and in respect to the more specific incident investigated in this chargesheet that is the purported visit of PFI/CFI to Hathras with an intent to disturb communal harmony, incite communal riots and spread terror”, the ED said.

    It alleged that Kappan took “active part in the conspiracy (in Hathras) as he had relations with PFI and was involved in use of proceeds of crime and transferred funds into the bank account of Rahman.”

    The car used by these four to travel to Hathras was purchased in cash with “crime money” of Rs 2.25 lakh about 10-15 days prior to their visit, the ED said.

    The agency claimed that a “part of proceeds of crime was projected as untainted money and used for purchase of land and was thus parked to enable future use by PFI/CFI.”

    The ED alleged that funds of “over Rs 100 crore have been deposited in accounts of PFI over the years, and a very large part of the same has been deposited in cash.”

    The source and disbursal of these funds is under investigation, it said.

    “PFI has been continuously indulging in various scheduled offences under the PMLA ever since the Narath (Kannur) arms training case of 2013 investigated by the NIA in which members of PFI/SDPI were convicted of organising a terrorist camp and entering into criminal conspiracy to impart training to the youth in use of explosives and weapons, with an intention to prepare them for terrorist activities,” the ED said in its statement.

    It claimed that the “involvement of PFI and its related organisations in the commission of such scheduled offences and the money transfers and cash deposits have significantly increased since the said incident in 2013”.

    The PFI has been “involved” in anti-CAA protests and several of its members and activists were also arrested by the Delhi Police in the riots case, the ED said.

    It also charged PFI with “collecting huge amounts of funds abroad through PFI members/activists specifically appointed”, saying targets for collection of foreign funds were fixed.

    “These funds have been remitted to India through hawala and under-ground channels and through remittances sent to the accounts of members/activists/office bearers of PFI and related organisations and also to their family members and associates,” it said.

    “Statutory compliance for collection of funds abroad and their remittance to India have not been done by PFI and its related organisations like Rehab India Foundation (which received around Rs 50 lakh as foreign contribution from abroad) as they are not registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976,” the ED said in its charges against PFI.

    Investigation regarding money laundering activities of PFI and its related organisations, and use of funds in various unlawful activities is in progress and supplementary chargesheets shall be filed, it said.