Hyderabad, Oct. 5 -- It has been one year since Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan was jailed. He was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to do his job as a journalist - to report the gruesome rape and murder of a Dalit girl.

The FIR against Kappan registered on October 7 in Mathura charged him with Section 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Information Technology Act.

When produced in...