The Additional District & Sessions Judge-I of Mathura will now hear the case of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan & 3 others after an Agra Court held that the Chief Judicial Magistrate wasn't competent to hear the matter & to order the remand of the accused.
Madhuban Dutt Chaturvedi, the counsel for 3 of the accused, confirmed the orders passed by the District & Sessions Judge earlier this week.
Chaturvedi said that “This transfer is the outcome of an application moved by the Special Task Force, heard & disposed of by the district & sessions judge. Interestingly, we too were challenging the jurisdiction of the chief judicial magistrate but our plea was rejected, earlier".
The transfer of the case took place in the light of the Supreme Court Judgement that no Court except that of the sessions’ judge was authorised to hear a case of this nature.
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Now, all the records & remand papers are to be transferred from the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate to the Court of Additional District & Sessions Judge.
Kappan & 3 others-- Atiqur Rahman, Aalam & Masood-- were arrested on the way to a village in Hathras to meet the family of a Dalit woman who was brutalised, gang raped & killed. They were arrested for alleged links with the notorious radical Muslim organisation, the Popular Front of India, & initially booked for breach of peace & later under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code & the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The case is being probed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) after it was handed over by the crime branch of Mathura. The STF had moved the application on which the transfer of the case took place.
Kappan is the secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists –KUWJ, which approached the Supreme Court seeking Kappan’s immediate release.
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KUWJ alleges Kappan’s arrest was illegal & an attempt to silence the media. However, the UP Govt alleges Kappan’s association with the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) & the PFI & has submitted to the apex court that the Delhi unit of KUWJ was itself facing a vigilance inquiry over embezzlement & misappropriation of public funds following a Kerala High Court order.
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