CHENNAI: As India celebrated its 76th Independence Day, the wife of journalist Siddique Kappan -- booked and jailed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Hathras conspiracy case --said that she is running around doing procedural works to move Supreme Court for her husband's bail, while Kappan's nine-year-old daughter said that ordinary citizens' freedom is not taken away.
"When her school authorities asked her to deliver a speech in view of Independence Day, she asked Independence for whom?" Siddique Kappan's wife Raihanath told TNIE.
"I am the daughter of a journalist who has been left to languish in jail, by being denied the basic civil rights available to all Indian citizens," is how the nine-year-old began her Independence day speech at her school on Monday, a video of which has gone viral on social media.
According to a PTI report, in her little over two-minute-long speech, she said that every Indian has the right to resist or oppose those asking them to leave, they have the choice to decide what to speak, eat or which religion to profess and all this is possible due to the struggles and sacrifices of freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhagat Singh, and countless others.
"Remembering all those freedom fighters, my request is not to take away the freedom and rights of the ordinary citizens," she said.
She also said that India's pride should not be surrendered before anyone.
In her speech, she further said that there was still unrest in the country as it was evident from the violence on the basis of religion, color or politics and said that the same should be "rooted out with love and unity".
"Even the shadow of any unrest should be wiped out. We all should live as one and should make every effort to take India to the top. We should dream of a better tomorrow without any differences and conflicts," she said.
"As India steps into its 76th Independence day, on this special occasion, as an Indian with unwavering pride and authority, I would like to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'," she said.
Meanwhile, Raihanath noted that after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court dismissed her husband's bail application she is presently engaged in procedural works to move the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal has agreed to appear for Kappan, she added.
While rejecting Kappan's bail plea, the court held that “the use of tainted money cannot be ruled out”.
Prior to that, a Mathura court had rejected Kappan's bail plea after which he had approached the high court.
The Uttar Pradesh police arrested Kappan, a reporter for a Malayalam news portal Azhimukham and secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and three others accompanying him on October 5, 2020, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and The Information Technology Act while they were on way to Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district where a Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped on September 14, 2020. Police had claimed that the accused were trying to disturb law and order in Hathras. They had also alleged that the accused had links with the Popular Front of India (PFI).
The rape victim had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after her alleged rape by four men from her village on September 14, 2020.
She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village.
Her family members claimed that the cremation, which took place well past midnight, was without her consent and that they were not allowed to bring home the body one last time.
(With inputs from PTI).