SC asks UP govt to file medical report of journalist Siddique Kappan

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a medical report of journalist Siddique Kappan and adjourned the matter for further hearing till Wednesday.

Supreme Court's three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, was hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) seeking its immediate direction to transfer Kappan from Mathura hospital to AIIMS, New Delhi, due to his serious ill-health.

"Let you (the SG, Uttar Pradesh government) file a medical report of the accused, in the case," said Justice Ramana, and adjourned the matter.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government refused the claim of Kappan's wife that the accused has been chained to a cot.

Lawyer for Kappan, Wills Mathews, said that on April 21, his client was tested positive for COVID-19 and was taken subsequently to hospital.

"He was chained to a cot, we got to know this," he said.

"My immediate main relief is that he will be released from the chains," Mathews told the apex court. To this, the SG said, he is not chained.

The SG said, he will file an affidavit in the case and the matter may be adjourned till Wednesday.

Kappan was arrested at a toll plaza near Hathras, while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh in October last year, in connection with his reporting assignment to cover the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old girl. An FIR had been registered under the UAPA in the case against Kappan by the Uttar Pradesh Police.