Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has granted bail to an accused, Masood, in connection with the 2020 Hathras case. Journalist Siddique Kappan and four others booked in the case are already on bail.
Masood had been booked along with Siddiqui Kappan and other accused by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A bench of justices A R Masoodi and A K Srivastava first passed an order allowing an appeal filed by Masood.
While passing the order granting bail to Masood on March 12, the bench took into account the fact that the Supreme Court had already granted bail to co-accused Kappan and other co-accused persons had been enlarged on bail by the high court itself.
Masood and Kappan along with others have been charge-sheeted by UP police's Special Task Force for sedition, criminal conspiracy, funding of terror activities and other offences. It has been alleged that they were involved in money laundering offences, claiming that they wanted to "incite communal riots and spread terror" in the aftermath of the Hathras gangrape case.
