Mohammed Alam, one of the persons booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act along with journalist Siddique Kappan, was on Thursday released from a Lucknow jail, his lawyer told Scroll.in.

The lawyer, Mohammad Saifan, said that his client was released in the morning hours.

Kappan, Alam and two other men were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police in October 2020, while they were travelling to Hathras district where a Dalit woman was gangraped and killed by four upper-caste Thakur men on September 14, 2020.

The prosecution had alleged that the accused men were travelling to Hathras with an intention to disturb harmony in the area. It had also alleged that the men were collecting funds to run a website that spread misinformation and incited violence.

Alam – a taxi driver from Delhi – was arrested on October 5, 2020. He spent more than two years in jail. The Allahabad High Court had granted him bail in the UAPA case on August 23. On October 31, he was given bail by a special court in Lucknow in a money laundering case.

Saifan said that Alam had to spend more than two months in jail even after getting bail due to delay on the part of local authorities in verifying the sureties furnished for him. “However, we are happy that he has now been released,” he added.

The High Court had directed Alam to serve a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two local sureties of the same amount. The Lucknow special court had ordered him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties of the same amount.

Those who serve surety for accused persons become responsible for their actions after release. The financial assets they offer as surety can be attached by courts if the accused persons abscond.

“In Alam’s case, the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force and the tehsil office had to verify the sureties,” Saifan told Scroll.in. “The tehsil office only accepted documents by post and not by email or by hand, which led to delays.”

Meanwhile, Kappan languishes in jail despite having secured bail in both the UAPA and money laundering cases. The Supreme Court had granted him bail in the UAPA case on September 9, while the Allahabad High Court granted him bail in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act case on December 23.

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Why journalist Siddique Kappan and his co-accused are languishing in jail – despite getting bail