Journalist Siddique Kappan, who is lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura prison since October 2020, has been hospitalised after he collapsed in the bathroom and sustained injuries on April 20. The Delhi-based journalist from Kerala also tested positive for coronavirus on April 21. He is currently under treatment at a hospital in Mathura. Following this, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), which has been fighting for Siddique Kappan’s release, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday, to shift him to All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) or the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi immediately.
Siddique Kappan, a freelance journalist for a Kerala news website, was arrested on October 5, 2020, while he was on his way from Delhi to Hathras, along with three others in a vehicle. He was en route to report on the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras when he was stopped by the Uttar Pradesh police. The officials seized his mobile phone, laptop and some literature, which they claimed “could disrupt peace.” They accused Siddique of having links with the Popular Front of India (PFI). He has been lodged in the Mathura prison since his arrest.
According to advocate Wills Mathew, who is representing KUWJ, Siddique Kappan has been ill for the past week. In the petition filed in the Supreme Court, KUWJ alleged that over 50 inmates of the Mathura prison have COVID-19. They also alleged that the prison severely lacks basic facilities, including drinking water, so much that they have to drink water from the toilet. “This has been seriously affecting the health and hygiene, which is leading to a major disaster. As of today, Siddique Kappan’s life is in danger for all reasons,” said the petition, as reported by Live Law.
“The wife of Siddique Kappan, came to know that…Kappan is chained like an animal in a cot of the Medical College Hospital, Mathura, without mobility, and he neither could take food, nor could go to toilet for the last more than 4 days, and is very critical,” read the plea by Advocate Wills Mathews.
“He called me today from somebody’s phone. He told me that the hospital authorities are not allowing him to go to the toilet. He is handcuffed to the bed and is not allowed to move. He is urinating in a bottle. He is a human being. He has at least to go to the toilet.” Raihanath, wife of Siddique Kaappan told The Week on Saturday.
