NEW DELHI: Almost two years after he was arrested by UP police, while on way to cover the gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, and charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly planning to incite violence, the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan while underscoring that “every citizen has the right to free expression”.
A bench of CJI U U Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha ordered he be released within three days on conditions to the satisfaction of the trial court. The SC passed the order after telling the state, “So till now, you have not shown anything (against Kappan) that was provocative.”
