Mathura court to hear bail plea on 4 Nov of two people arrested for sedition while travelling to Hathras

Mathura: A district court in Mathura has deferred till 4 November the hearing on the bail plea of the two of the four people booked for sedition and other charges after their arrest on their way to the Hathras rape-murder victim’s village earlier this month. Those arrested included a Kerala journalist, Siddique Kappan, who has not filed any bail application so far. The other accused in the case are Aalam, Masood and Atiqur Rahman. According to the FIR, charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IT Act were also filed against the four, who were accused by the state police of having links with the alleged radical group Popular Front of India. Earlier, their bail plea was rejected by the chief judicial magistrate, Mathura, on 16 October. According to Assistant District Government Council Narendra Sharma, the bail application of Aalam and Masood was taken up by Additional District Judge Amar Singh on Thursday. Nobody presented the request for the bail of Atiqur Rahman. Sharma said DSP (STF) Rakesh Paliwal had requested the court to give more time to the investigation since the offense is of serious nature and information has to be collected from different places. Rejecting his request, the judge said no further adjournment will be allowed and asked to collect information within the stipulated period only, Sharma said. Meanwhile, a memo on behalf of Atiqur Rahman, Aalam and Masood was presented in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Assistant Prosecuting Officer Brijmohan Singh said. Since the time limit for police custody is only 15 days, STF cannot interrogate them as the period has expired, the memo stated. Meanwhile, the Aalam’s wife alleged that her husband, a driver by profession, has been falsely implicated in the case. She rejected the charge that objectionable material was recovered from her husband. Aalam’s wife also alleged that she is not being allowed to meet her husband by the Mathura jail authorities.