The Uttar Pradesh government, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, has claimed that Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan is a secretary of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and was going to Hathras under the identity of reporting for a newspaper that was shut in 2018, according to reports.
Opposing the habeas corpus petition against Kappan’s arrest, which the Supreme Court heard on Friday, 20 November, the UP government said he, along with others, were going to Hathras with a “very determined design to create caste divide and disturb law and order situation.”
The state government also stated that the journalist has been in touch with the lawyers, and hasn’t been denied meeting with them.
The habeas corpus petition against his arrest had been filed by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ).