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Shift Kappan to Delhi hospital: Supreme Court rejects UP’s arguments
Kappan, secretary of the Delhi unit of KUWJ, was arrested on October 5 last year while on his way to Hathras in UP after the gangrape of a 19-year-old woman who died in hospital of injuries she suffered in the sexual assault.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, overlooked arguments by the Uttar Pradesh government and ordered it to shift jailed journalist Siddique Kappan to a hospital in Delhi for better medical treatment, observing that it is the duty of the state to protect health and life of undertrials too.
“Life of everybody is valuable. We are concerned only about his health. It is the duty of the state also to protect him when his health is concerned. That’s the most important issue,” remarked a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana.
The bench, which included justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna, asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the UP government, to ensure that Kappan was admitted in one of the government hospitals in the national capital for a proper treatment.
“He (Kappan) can be taken back to Mathura jail after the doctors opine that he can be discharged. We are also disposing of this writ petition. He can go to the trial court for any other relief...We haven’t gone on titles of petitioner or anything else, but it is a humanitarian issue,” the bench told the S-G, who strongly opposed any order on shifting Kappan to a hospital outside UP.
The law officer was responding to a claim by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) that Kappan was chained to a hospital bed in Mathura’s KM Medical College after he collapsed in bathroom at the Mathura jail and later tested positive for Covid-19.
Mehta sought to undermine the credibility of the body, seemed to suggest that Kappan had been hospitalised in Uttar Pradesh despite a shortage of hospital beds in the state, with even influential (“huge” in his own words) people unable to find beds, and then finally argued that hospitalising him in Delhi would mean evicting a Covid positive person. But the court persisted.
The order came on a joint plea by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and Kappan’s wife that the scribe required immediate medical care after he had collapsed in bathroom at the Mathura jail and later tested positive for COVID-19 in the antigen test. They claimed Kappan, who was diabetic and also had heart conditions, was chained to the hospital bed. Mehta claimed on Tuesday that this was not the case.
Kappan, secretary of the Delhi unit of KUWJ, was arrested on October 5 last year while on his way to Hathras in UP after the gangrape of a 19-year-old woman who died in hospital of injuries she suffered in the sexual assault. He was later booked under the terror charge over his alleged association with the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and its alleged off-shoot, the Popular Front of India (PFI). The Uttar Pradesh government sought to manage the incident of the gangrape by throwing a police dragnet over the entire area, and cremated the body of the victim overnight, despite protests by her family members.
KUWJ subsequently filed a petition in the apex court, calling Kappan’s arrest illegal and an attempt to silence the media. Kappan’s wife also filed her plea in December last to be heard in this case. She wrote to the CJI on April 25 seeking his release from the hospital because of the ill-treatment. On Tuesday, the court asked the UP government to put on record Kappan’s medical report to ascertain these claims.
On Wednesday, the S-G informed the bench that Kappan tested negative for Covid-19 in the RT-PCR and was sent back to Mathura jail. He also denied that the scribe was chained.
Advocate Wills Mathew, appearing for KUWJ and Kappan’s wife, however, contended that the scribe’s life was under threat because of improper medical care in the Mathura jail and that he needed to be shifted to a better hospital outside the state.
Vehemently resisting this plea, Mehta submitted that the apex court should not entertain such a plea by an accused who is being prosecuted for his links with terror groups and chose to use a purported journalistic organsation to press his case.
“There are thousands of law-abiding citizens who are Covid positive and have not been able to find beds in any hospital. I, as a state, cannot agree to arranging for a bed for a 42-year-old non-Covid person with non-serious ailments who is facing terror charges,” argued Mehta.
But the bench replied: “We are aware of difficulties of admission in hospitals at present times. But it is in your interest too. Why should the state be held responsible for any untoward incident because of his health? Responsibility is on the state too. Let him be treated at a hospital in Delhi and he can go back after he is well.”
With the writing on the wall, the S-G requested the bench to also direct a hospital in Delhi to give Kappan a bed, lamenting that he would not want to ask any Covid-positive patient to vacate it for Kappan at a time when there are no beds available in any hospital. The bench, however, asked Mehta to make this arrangement on his own.
