AGRA:
Journalist Siddique Kappan
remained incarcerated in Mathura prison on Thursday, over 24 hours after the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to shift him to a Delhi hospital for treatment “at the earliest”.
Mathura jail
authorities said on Thursday evening that they have "received no instructions from the state government on the transfer of the inmate".
Kappan was moved back to the Mathura jail on Tuesday from a local hospital, a day before the
apex court
had directed the UP government to take him to Delhi for treatment after his medical reports revealed that he had multiple health issues like diabetes, heart ailment, blood pressure, and bodily injury, apart from testing positive for Covid-19.
SSP
, Mathura district jail, Shailendra Maitrey, confirmed to TOI that Kappan had gone back to the prison "after he tested negative for Covid-19 on Tuesday".
Kappan and three others were arrested on October 5 last year when they were going to Hathras in UP from Delhi to report the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl by upper caste youths. Later they were accused of trying to create disturbance and booked for sedition and under UAPA.
A petition was recently filed in the apex court seeking his transfer to a better hospital in Delhi. The apex court on Wednesday had said, “It is necessary to provide adequate and effective medical assistance to him (Kappan) and to allay all apprehension relating to his health; it would be in the interest of justice to shift Kappan, the arrestee, either to
Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital
or to
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or any other government hospital in Delhi for the proper medical treatment. The needful shall in this regard be done at the earliest.”
Lawyer Wills Mathew told TOI that he spoke to Kappan on Thursday about his medical condition and assured him that better medical facilities will be made available to him soon, according to the apex court order.