New Delhi: Moves are afoot to shift ailing Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan soon to a Delhi hospital for better treatment.
Delhi-based Kappan, arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police last October, had contracted SARS-CoV-2 while being lodged in prison, and has been undergoing COVID-19 treatment in a Mathura hospital.
He was arrested while proceeding to Hathras to report on the rape and murder of a Dalit woman in October last. He was booked by the Uttar Prades Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, on allegations that he tried to create communal tension.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and comprising justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna, on Wednesday, ordered the shifting of Kappan for treatment at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences or Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital or any other government hospital in the national capital.
The court also said he may be returned to Mathura jail on recovery. The order was passed after Kappan’s wife and the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists had moved the court.
