BREAKING: Allahabad High Court grants bail to Siddique Kappan in PMLA case

The Allahabad High Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan in a case initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)..Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed the bail order noting that except for allegations that Rs. 5,000/- was transferred in the bank account of co-accused, Atikur Rahman, there is no other transaction, either in the bank account of the accused-applicant or in the bank account of co-accused.Even if it is believed that part of proceeds of crime was transferred in the bank account of co-accused, Atikur Rahman that itself may not be sufficient to prove that the accused-applicant has dealt with the proceeds of crime amounting to Rs. 1,36,14,291/-which had been allegedly received by K.A. Rauf Sherif, stated the bail order.Advocates Ishan Baghel and Mohd Khalid appeared for Kappan..District Judge Sanjay Shankar Pandey had on December 8 framed charges against Kappan and six others under Sections 3 (offence of money laundering) and 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the PMLA.On October 31, a sessions court in Lucknow had rejected Kappan's bail plea in the PMLA case.In September 2022, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Kappan in the case filed against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)..Kappan, a reporter for Malayalam news portal Azhimukham, and secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), was arrested along with three others in Uttar Pradesh in October 2020, while on his way to Hathras to report on the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl.He was then booked under the UAPA and later under the PMLA.In the UAPA case, he was denied bail by lower courts and the Allahabad High Court, before the top court granted him relief.However, he continued to remain in prison since he was yet to get bail in the PMLA case..[Read Order]