Timeline
July 7, 2021
Additional District and Session Judge, Mathura, Anil Kumar Pandey rejects Kappan’s bail application after hearing arguments from both sides.
June 18, 2021
Kappan’s ailing mother Khadija Kutty passes away at the age of 90.
June 15, 2021
A Mathura court drops proceedings on charges related to apprehension of breach of peace against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and three others.
May 6, 2021
Siddique Kappan discharged from AIIMS, taken to Mathura Jail. Wife informed at 10:30 P.M.
April 28, 2021
The Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna orders the Uttar Pradesh government to shift Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan to a Delhi hospital for better medical treatment. The previous day, on April 27, while hearing the plea filed by journalists’ body, Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), seeking Covid positive Siddique Kappan’s transfer to AIIMS or Safdarjung Hospital, the Supreme Court had asked for his medical reports.
April 26, 2021
Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan's wife Raihanth Kappan has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana praying for his immediate intervention to release her husband from Mathura Medical College back to Mathura Jail till his plea for release from jail is decided. Raihanth says that Siddique has been allegedly “chained to a hospital bed like an animal” and is not being allowed to use the bathroom. Siddique had taken a fall in the bathroom jail and injured himself. Thereafter, he was taken to a Hospital in Mathura.
February 15, 2021
Supreme Court grants Siddique Kappan 5 days interim bail to meet his ailing nonagenarian mother in the Hospital.
December 14, 2020
The Supreme Court allows KUWJ time to respond to additional affidavit filed by UP government. Case adjourned till third week of January 2021.
November 21, 2020
KUWJ lawyer Wills Matthews meets Kappan for 30 minutes. This is when Kappan tells him that he “was beaten with lathi three times on his thigh, slapped three times after taking out the spectacles, dragged, forced to stay awake from 6 PM to 6 AM depriving him of sleep, without proper medicines (for diabetes), along with serious mental torture from October 5 to October 6, 2020.”
November 20, 2020
UP government files affidavit in SC claiming Kappan was going to Hathras under the “garb of journalism with a very determined design to create caste divide and disturb law and order situation”. It further alleged that Kappan is the office secretary of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and was using a journalist cover by showing identity card of Tejas, a Kerala-based newspaper which shut-down in 2018.
November 17, 2020
Siddique Kappan was allowed to speak to his lawyer after 41 days in jail. But he is not allowed to speak for more than 5 minutes. His lawyers argued in court that he was not being allowed to speak to his family members nor was he allowed to sign a Vakalatnama.
November 16, 2020
The Supreme Court seeks response from the Centre, UP govt officials in a habeas corpus plea filed by KUWJ for his release.
October 29, 2020
KUWJ files an application for interim direction seeking permission of regular VC calls with Siddique to speak to his lawyers and family. It is alleged that he was not allowed to speak to his lawyers.
October 16, 2020
Chief Judicial Magistrate (Mathura) dismissed a KUWJ application filed to meet the journalist in jail.
October 12, 2020
The Supreme Court adjourns the habeas corpus petition for 4 more weeks and also asks KUWJ to approach the High Court in the interim.
October 7, 2020
UP Police book him for sedition, and under provisions of anti terror law UAPA and IT Act.
October 6, 2020
KUWJ files a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court against Kappan’s arrest by Uttar Pradesh Police
October 5, 2020
Siddique Kappan gets arrested by UP police on his way to Hathras and is accused of being associated with an Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) and having a history of organising demonstrations against CAA.
