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'I won't let my 28 months in jail go waste,' says Siddique Kappan

Kappan, who was released from Lucknow jail, reiterates the case against him is fake

Journalist Siddique Kappan with his wife Raihana and son Muzammil after his release from the Lucknow | PTI Journalist Siddique Kappan with his wife Raihana and son Muzammil after his release from Lucknow jail | PTI

After 28 months of incarceration, Delhi-based Malayali journalist Siddique Kappan was finally released from Lucknow district jail on Thursday. Kappan was arrested on October 5, 2020 when he was travelling with two others to Uttar Pradesh's Hathras where a dalit woman was gang-raped and killed by four men in the previous month. Masood Ahmad, 28, an activist of now banned Popular Front of India (PFI), and Atiq-ur-Rahman, 26, a student activist from Jamia Millia Islamia, were his co-passengers in their Swift Desire car, DL 1JDC1203. Police arrested the trio, along with car driver Aalam, under the apprehension of causing a “breach of peace”. They were then produced before a court of the sub-divisional magistrate which in turn sent them to judicial custody. Subsequently, the UP police charged them with the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, alleging they were travelling to Hathras to incite communal riots. Later, Kappan was booked under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, too.

Kappan’s partner Raihanath and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists spearheaded the legal fight for him. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, he says that a fake case was registered against him and that he will continue his fight against laws like UAPA.

Excerpts:

How do you feel now? What are your plans now?

I feel so happy now. It was on a 100 per cent fake case that I was jailed. I will legally fight this case in my greatest capacity. I am not asking who will give me back the 28 months I lost. But, I will not let that 28 months go waste. [I will continue my fight] against Draconian laws like UAPA. I was working as a journalist in Delhi since 2013. UAPA was one of my beats. I used to write issues of dalits, Muslims, minorities… I am not worried about the months I lost in jail. The fight will continue. There are many—including many journalists—who are incarcerated like me. Until they are all released, this fight will continue.

When they put me in jail, I became stronger. They gave me a chance. They set up a canvas for me to start drawing. Earlier, I had only limited canvas to draw something. I was only a Malayali journalist. So, my canvas was limited.

Tell me a little bit about your days in journalism. You were interested in history. You had many blogs talking about history.

I had many blogs. In the charge sheet, they [UP police] referred to my blogs, too. Your magazine’s motto is journalism with a human touch. I am also a person who does [journalism] of human touch. And, religion, gender or caste does not matter when it comes to such stories. I am someone who gets too emotional when I hear human stories and rape cases. When I hear rape cases, I would feel that it is someone like my daughter who got violated. So, when I think about my life of 28 months, I do not feel it was a waste. I believe that it will bring some sort of goodness. And, I will use my last 28 months to do good deeds.

Speaking about the day you got arrested, you shared a ride in a car with some [Popular Front of India] activists, and that led to all the unfortunate incidents that followed. Were you in a financially unstable state when you were travelling to Hathras?

You know the kind of peanut print journalists earn. For reporting, I have gone to places like Chhattisgarh and Kashmir sharing rides. If there is a story, you would go there at any cost, right? And, you may take a ride with anybody, right? My act was also like that. And, they labelled it as terrorism!

Popular Front of India was not a banned organization then. But why did you choose to travel in that car?

Our car driver was just an ordinary OLA driver in Delhi. My name and his name, both belonged to the names that come from a certain community. Another co-passenger with me was a student in Jamia Millia. I knew him. He was not a Popular Front activist. He was a student activist in Jamia. Why I went with them was, my Hindi was not that great. And, I required someone to help me with the colloquial language [spoken in Hathras]. I wanted to hear the feelings of the [Hathras victim’s] family and do a thorough ground report. That was why I asked for the [Jamia student’s] help. I did not even think about his organization or his activism while asking for help.

I heard that you had asked many other journalist friends whether they were going to Hathras to share the ride.

Yes, I asked many other journalists from media houses like Deshabhimani and Kairali whether they would be able to share a ride with me. But they could not do it. A day before I went, a group of activists of All India Kisan Sabha had gone to Hathras. I called them to ask whether I could join them, but then only I came to know about their journey. I then took information from them and filed a report on October 4. It was on October 5 that I got arrested. On October 4, I took the bytes of Kisan Sabha leaders who had visited the house of the Hathras victim and sent a report.

I have heard that when you got arrested, the initial questions from the police were whether you were with Maoists.

(Kappan laughs) Yes. That is right. The initial efforts were to tag me as a Maoist Communist empathiser. The reason was that I used to handle UAPA beats ever since I started working in Delhi. Those who are caught in UAPA are mostly Maoists. That could be the reason. They might have checked my news articles. Later only they decided to tag me as a Muslim terrorist.

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