Siddique Kappan was granted bail under PMLA

Siddique Kappan was granted bail on Friday by the Allahabad High Court in a case initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The bail order was passed by Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, who noted that besides allegations that The accused-applicant's bank account did not contain any other transactions, either the bank account of the accused-applicant or the bank account of the co-accused, apart from the transfer of Rs. 5,000/- to the co-accused's account.

However, even the fact that part of the proceeds of the crime was transferred into the bank account of co-accused Atikur Rahman may not suffice to prove that the accused-applicant handled the proceeds of crime amounting to Rs. 1,36,14,291/-which had been allegedly received by K.A. Rauf Sherif, stated the bail order.

According to the PMLA, District Judge Sanjay Shankar Pandey filed charges against Kappan and six others on December 8.

Kappan's bail plea in the PMLA case was rejected by a Lucknow sessions court on October 31.

The Top Court granted Kappan bail in September 2022 under UAPA.

While reporting on the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl for the Malayalam news portal Azhimukham and the Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), Kappan, along with three others, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh in October 2020.

He was booked under the UAPA and later PMLA.

He was denied bail by lower courts and the Allahabad High Court before the top court granted him relief in the UAPA case.

Since he had not been granted bail in the PMLA case, he remained in prison.