Kappan back in Mathura jail, wife sends contempt notice

Agra: Journalist Siddique Kappan tested Covid-19

positive

twice within a span of 11

days

, if Mathura Jail authorities are to be believed. Kappan was first found to be infected with Covid-19 on April 21 and was shifted to a hospital inside the jail premises. Later, he was taken to a private hospital in Mathura where, according to his wife, he was kept in chains.

On April 28, when Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) approached Supreme Court seeking his transfer to AIIMS or any other better health facility in Delhi, the jail administration claimed in a written affidavit that he has tested negative for the virus.

On April 30, Kappan was taken to the AIIMS on the direction of the apex court. And on May 2, his

test

report again showed that he was suffering from the infection.

And just six days later, in a strange turn of events, Kappan was discharged from AIIMS and brought back to Mathura jail hospital on the night of May 7. The discharge summary issued by AIIMS said he was still positive for Covid-19 and needed 14 days of isolation and treatment.

Kappan’s lawyer Wills Mathew expressed surprise and wondered how a severe diabetic patient had recovered from Covid-19 within a few days and again got infected.

Kappan's wife Raihanath on Sunday sent a notice of contempt to the Uttar Pradesh government alleging that it did not comply with the Supreme Court order asking it to provide better medical treatment to the journalist at AIIMS or in any other hospital of Delhi. In the notice, Raihanath has asked the authorities to shift Kappan to AIIMS or any Delhi hospital within “six hours” or she will approach Chief Justice of India with a contempt petition at 3pm, Monday.

The notice also said that if the state government has “any difficulty in spending the taxpayers money for the treatment of Kappan, their clients are prepared to take him to the medical college in Kozhikode, or any other hospital near to the clients residence at their own cost.”

Senior superintendent of Mathura district jail Shailendra Maitrey, had said Kappan was shifted to the jail at 1.30am on May 7. “He was stable at the time of discharge. According to directions he has been put up in an isolation ward of the district jail hospital and is under observation,” Maitrey said, adding that all diagnostic tests had been conducted at AIIMS.