After being released from jail, Siddique Kappan told NewsBust, “I will continue my fight against the draconian laws. After 28 months long fight, they kept me in jail even after I got bail. I don’t know if I am in jail. Who was benefiting by staying. These two years were very difficult. But I was never scared.”

Kappan was expected to come out on Tuesday evening, but could not be released. Because the judge of a special court hearing money laundering cases was busy with the Bar Council elections.

He was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to report the alleged gang rape and death of a 20-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, which triggered protests across the country. The police said that he was going to the spot to create disturbance.

The woman had died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was allegedly gang-raped. He was cremated at midnight in his village by the district administration, in which the Yogi Adityanath government was condemned.

Kappan was charged with sedition and under the tough anti-terror law UAPA. In February 2022, the Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case against him, accusing him of receiving money from the banned People’s Front of India.

In September last year, the Supreme Court granted him bail after noting that no formal charges had been filed against him. He got bail after three months in the money laundering case, but his release was held up due to several bureaucratic lapses.

Kappan’s arrest, prompted by the Uttar Pradesh government’s efforts to avoid negative coverage on the incident in Hathras, was condemned by the opposition and civil society groups as an attempt by the BJP government to suppress the media.

The police have claimed that the journalist and others arrested along with him are members of the banned Popular Front of India and its student wing Campus Front of India. Kappan has denied any involvement in terror activities or financing. He said that he was going to Hathras for journalistic work.