Anti-Terror Chargesheet Filed Against Kerala Scribe Covering Hathras Rape Case

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police filed a 5,000-page chargesheet against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested in October last year. Kappan was arrested while travelling from Delhi to report on the aftermath of the alleged gang-rape and subsequent death of a Dalit woman from Hathras.

Seven others, including three arrested with Kappan, and the others arrested later, also face charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA for alleged conspiracy to create communal tension, reported NDTV.

The police, in the FIR (First Information Report), used a section of the UAPA that deals with “raising funds for a terrorist act”. Kappan has since been behind the bars in Mathura.

“We have not yet received a copy of the chargesheet. It’s about 5,000 pages. Once we officially get a copy, we will study it and decide our course of action,” defence lawyer Madhuvan Dutt Chaturvedi told reporters outside the Mathura court.

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