After 5 Pleas Get No Response, Kappan’s Lawyer Moves Allahabad HC

Siddique Kappan’s lawyer says they want the Allahabad HC to take up the plea or direct the lower court to hear it.

Siddique Kappan’s (right), lawyer Wills Mathews (centre) said they want the Allahabad HC to take up the plea or direct the lower court to hear it.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

UAPA accused and Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan’s lawyer Wills Mathews has written to the Allahabad High Court, with the attempt of getting them to list his urgent bail application on Thursday, 3 June, The Quint has learnt. The matter has been escalated to the Allahabad High Court, after waiting for the Mathura court to respond to five applications, including a bail plea.

“We have written repeatedly to the Mathura High Court official email ID with our bail application, but despite all of that, we have got no response for three days. This is an urgent plea and therefore we are writing to the Allahabad HC today (3 June) as we are getting no response,” Mathews, said.

He says they want the Allahabad HC to take up the matter or to direct the lower court to hear the matter. “Bail is a matter of priority, so they should take it up, and if there is a difficulty then the Allahabad HC can take the matter up themselves.”

Mathews says that for any email he has sent, in the last three weeks, the court has never responded or acknowledged. “However this is the official email address, which I got from the notification,” he said.

What Does the Letter Say?

The letter states how based on the administrative orders, Kappan’s lawyers wrote applications to two email IDs of the Mathura court. The first one was not working, and the second one worked but no responses were recieved for five applications filed between 5 May 2021 and 31 May 2021.

“The applicant believes that ‘digital access to the courts of law’ by email/telephone is a fundamental right. Delay is fatal to the accused.”

The five applications cited are:

• Application sent on 5 May 2021 to meet Kappan on behalf of his wife

• Application sent on 13 May 2021 to preserve CCTV footage of the new mathura jail from 16 October, to prove human rights violation

• Application sent on 13 May 2021 to preserve footage of KM Medical college to prove that the accused was tied to a cot with a plastic bottle for the purpose of passing urine

• Application sent on 17 May 2021 requesting a copy of the charge sheet

• Application sent on 31 May 2021 to move for bail

The plea requests the Allahabad HC to either direct the Mathura court to dispose off all five applications or hear it themselves.

Background of the Case

The case is related to the Hathras rape and murder case.

The UP Police special task force believes that these men are involved in terrorist activities and were going to west UP’s Hathras district with a “very determined design to create caste divide and disturb the law and order situation” in the aftermath of the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman.

Of the eight accused in this case, four men, Siddique Kappan, Atiq-ur Rehman, Masood Ahmed, and Alam, were booked by UP Police on their way to the Dalit victim’s home in west UP. Of the remaining four Rauf Sharif, Firoze, and Ansad Badruddin, were arrested later, while another accused Danish has not been arrested, as he moved Allahabad HC against coercive action.

The men, according to the charges in the charge sheet, have been booked under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 124 A (sedition) of the IPC, 65 and 72 of the IT Act and 17 (punishment for raising funds for a terrorist act) and 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.