PFI steps up media campaign to influence judiciary to grant bail for its activist arrested along with Kappan

Islamists are fabricating new tales to influence the judiciary to get bail for terror accused who were arrested along with dubious journalist Siddique Kappan. Kappan and three others were arrested in October 2020 when they were heading towards Hathras in a bid to create communal strife in the wake of the death of a Dalit girl.

Left-Islamist propaganda websites have been dishing out stories how Siddhique Kappan is innocent and he joined his fellow-travellers belonging to the Campus Front of India, students wing of the dreaded Popular Front. While several sob stories were planted in the media which said Kappan was a diabetic patient and the police are not providing him medicines.

Now, a new campaign is being run to ensure the release of Atikur Rahman, 28. The UP Police’s investigation revealed that Atikur Rahman was involved in planning and executing violent protests after the government brought in Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Propaganda websites such as Newslaundry and the Quint have carried stories claiming that Atikur Rahman has become “partially-paralysed” and “highly disoriented”.

The Popular Front which has been running the ‘Save Kappan’ campaign from the background and putting a cash-strapped Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) on the front. In the court, too, Kappan had claimed that he had no links with the Popular Front. The police had punched holes in his claim by quoting Popular Front’s documents which praised Kappan for his “services”. The UP Police investigation has found that the Popular Front is funding the KUWJ in the campaign. KUWJ is embroiled in a serious financial scam involving crores of Government funds and a vigilance investigation is underway.

Now that there is a hope that Kappan might get bail from the Supreme Court, the Popular Front is making efforts to bring others also out on bail.

It may be mentioned here that though a section of journalists has been running a media campaign claiming that Kappan has no links with Popular Front, the police busted several terror modules and arrested several key funders of terror on the basis of inputs given by the dubious journalist.