Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday requested his Uttar Pradesh counterpart to intervene and ensure that journalist Siddique Kappan, presently in custody under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)in the northern state, be provided expert health care.
In a letter to Yogi Adityanath, Vijayan said the Kerala Union of Working Journalists and some prominent media persons had brought to his attention that Kappan, who hails from Kerala, suffered from heart ailments and had tested positive for COVID-19, due to which he was facing health issues.
Kappan had been admitted to KVM hospital in Mathura and had reportedly been kept chained to his bed even when his health condition had become precarious, Vijayan said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here.
Expert health care should be provided and he should be shifted to another super speciality hospital, where modern life saving facilities are ensured, it was stated.
The move comes on a day when 11 MPs of the opposition Congress led UDF sought the intervention of Supreme Court Chief Justice N V Ramana for an urgent hearing of the case of Delhi-based Kappan, who was arrested last October while he was on his way to Hathras, where a young Dalit woman died after being gang raped. Kappan's wife Raihana also sought Vijayan's intervention in the matter.
She alleged that her husband was chained to his cot and was not given food for four days and his condition was deteriorating.
Raihanth claimed in a letter written to the Chief Justice of India that Kappan received injuries on April 20 after falling in the jail bathroom and was reported COVID positive a day later.
It said that he was shifted to K M Medical College, Mathura, on April 21, where he is presently "chained like an animal in a cot of the hospital, without mobility, and he neither could take food, nor could go to toilet for the last more than 4 days, and is very critical."
"If immediate corrective steps are not taken it will result in his untimely death," the letter claimed.
She said, "Despite having knowledge about the procedure established by law for mentioning, I am forced to approach your lordship directly, being an issue arising out of a habeas corpus petition pending more than six months, believing 'Justice is above all, and even laws, rules and guidelines bend before it'."
"Importantly, media is the breath of democracy, and it is an attempt for giving breath to a media person, who is in jail for the last more than six months, and the habeas corpus petition also pending since October 6, 2020.
"It is most respectfully prayed to take immediate steps/pass necessary orders to release Kappan from the medical college hospital back to the Mathura Jail as interim relief," the letter said, adding that the representation given to Jail Superintendent, Mathura by message was pending.
