Delhi: “I languished in jail without any crime. This hurts.”

“‘Anti-national’ is a very big tag that affects your mental balance. You are preparing for UPSC to serve the country, but on the other hand, you are tagged as anti-national.”

These were some things that Masud Ahmed, a 29-year-old university graduate, told Article 14 in phone conversations over the summer after he was granted bail on 12 March 2024 following more than three years of incarceration in Uttar Pradesh. 

Ahmed was one of the four Muslim men who were arrested on 5 October 2020 when they were on their way to Hathras district, where a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by upper-caste men on 14 September 2020 and died in a hospital two weeks later. 

The incident triggered national outrage against the sexual violence against women and caste crime in UP. 

The four were accused of going to Hathras to incite communal violence and booked for sedition, outraging religious feelings, raising funds and conspiring to commit terrorist activity under India’s anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967. 

The arrest of Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala, was widely reported and focused attention on the case that was seemingly targeting four Muslims, including a Muslim journalist, with no evidence, in a state where anti-Muslim persecution was rising since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the centre in 2014 and UP in 2017, with Hindutva hardliner Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister.

Case After Case

In February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate filed a case against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), alleging they were money laundering to fund terrorist activity as members of the Popular Front of India (PFI), a banned Islamic group.

Article 14 reported that the PMLA case dates back to 2018 and is linked to a 2013 case, neither of which Kappan or his co-accused had any connection with. 

They were only accused when the ED filed a chargesheet in the 2018 case before the PMLA court in Lucknow on 6 February 2021, four months after their arrest in the UAPA case on 5 October 2020. 

In April 2021, the UP police charge-sheeted eight people—Siddique Kappan, Atikur Rahman, Md Alam, Masud Ahmed, Rauf Sherif,  Asad Badruddin, Firoz Khan, and Mohammad Danish—in the UAPA case, which was transferred in December 2021 from Mathura to the  Lucknow sessions court.

An accused in a UAPA case faces a very different legal reality than that charted under the Criminal Procedure Code.

The UAPA expands the 15 days of custodial remand at a stretch to 30 days—including for police custody. The provision also permits the police to seek custody during the investigation—not just at the beginning. The UAPA also allows a judge to permit custody during the investigation for up to 180 days instead of 60 or 90 days under the CrPC.

On 30 May 2023, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court granted bail to Ahmed in the PMLA case, but he remained jailed in the UAPA case until he was granted bail in March this year. 

4 Get Bail 

While granting bail to Md Alam, a taxi driver, in the UAPA case on 23 August 2022, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court said, “Prima facie, there appears no complicity and involvement of the appellant with the terrorist activities or any other activity against the nation.”

While granting bail to Siddique Kappan on 9 September 2022 in the UAPA case, the Supreme Court said, “Every person has a right to free expression. He may be trying to propagate an idea that there is something and the victim requires justice, so 'let us be a common voice'... Will that be a crime in the eyes of the law?"

The state of UP alleged that the "literature" found in the car contained messages like 'Justice for Hathras' and "optics to stir up feelings." The Hindu reported at the time that there was allegedly a "toolkit" or a "riot incitement handbook." 

"Sometimes protests are necessary to highlight deficiencies at some point… Till now, you (Uttar Pradesh) have not shown anything provocative," the court said. 

While granting bail to Atikur Rehman in March 2023, the Allahabad High Court said the state could not show any financial gain he received, barring a sum of Rs 5000, which was received in his bank account. And there was no “strong reason which may justify continued detention”.

While granting Ahmed bail in March this year, the Allahabad High Court did not comment on the case, noting that Ahmed had been in jail since 5 October 2020 and that the other accused persons had been granted bail.

Ahmed and Rehman were members of the Campus Front of India. Atikur Rehmar was the national treasurer and Masud Ahmed was the Delhi general secretary. The CFI is said to be the student wing of the PFI, operating on college campuses. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned both in September 2022.

‘There Was Discrimination’

The ED alleged that Kappan, Rahman, Ahmed and Alam received money from the PFI to fund the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the Delhi riots. 

Recalling his arrest and subsequent incarceration in Mathura jail, Ahmed said that he felt he faced discrimination because he was Muslim. 

“There was discrimination because I’m Muslim. In the beginning, they refused to let me meet with the family,” said Ahmed. “It happened many times and also hurt because, without crime, I was in jail.”

“A false story was created that these persons were arranging money for Hathras unrest; however, no link was found by the STF (special task force), and later on, the story was changed in the chargesheet,” said Sheeran Mohiuddin Alvi, a Lucknow-based lawyer, who is appearing for Ahmed along with two other lawyers.  

“Nothing was recovered from the possession of these persons, except some pamphlets demanding justice for the Hathras person,” said Alvi. 

After he was granted bail in March, Ahmed could not leave =prison and return home to Jarwal town in the district of Bahraich, more than 100 km from where he was jailed in Lucknow and more than 500 km from the jail in Mathura, where he was first jailed.

His family could not afford the surety, having paid surety in the PMLA case. No one was ready to pay the surety. He had to wait for another two months while his family tried to organise it by asking family and friends. 

Two people agreed but withdrew when the police verified the sureties. The family suspects the police threatened them. They had to arrange for surety from another relative again, and another verification followed. 

Ahmed finally could leave on 8 May 2024. 

‘My Dreams Have Been Crushed’

Ahmed, a journalism graduate from Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, was preparing for the union civil services. He had qualified for the exam to get admission for a PhD, and he was about to appear for an exam to get a junior research fellowship. 

“I filed a petition for an exam which was too rejected,” said Ahmed. “My dreams of UPSC and PhD have been crushed.”

Ahmed said that he met Kappan while reporting in Delhi, and they had no connection with the Popular Front of India (PFI), a banned Islamic organisation. 

After 15 months in Mathura, Ahmed was transferred to Lucknow jail.

After bail, two trials are underway before the Lucknow Bench. 

“There are many financial tortures. I’m trying to restart my life,” said Ahmed. “I’m looking for a livelihood. I have started writing for some media houses, and I think I will enrol in Law because we need good lawyers.”

Ahmed said his family had struggled to cope.

His father runs a wholesale key and lock shop, which has also been in trouble. His mother, a diabetes patient, was gravely unwell. Relatives and neighbours stayed away.

“My family has been crushed,” he said. “Our family did not see this kind of trial or case. Due to the case, we need to sell family gold and are in debt of around Rs 10 lakh. There was no legal aid.”

A Brother Speaks 

Mohammad Monis, 34, the eldest brother of Ahmed and a cloud engineer, was planning his marriage, but Ahmed said this case crushed his brother’s dream. He has to leave his job in Delhi because of court appearances in UP and has not found another one. 

The woman’s side broke another brother’s engagement because of the arrest.

“Our family never saw this kind of incident, so we were completely unaware of the court and jail process,” said Monis. “I had never visited court or jail before. “I visited almost every week or many times twice a week, too. I don't know about the process, so they (jail officials/employees) charged me twice or thrice for sending things inside the jail.”

“In the beginning, however, some people and NGOs approached for legal support, but no one helped. Then, my marriage savings were spent in the case. We got the lawyer because we were unaware of how to tackle the case. If he says go there or here, we run. We wasted six to seven months and two and a half lakhs rupees in Allahabad, but nothing happened. At that time, we had around Rs 25 lakh savings, but now we are in debt of around ten lakhs. If you approach any lawyer, they charge around Rs 2-2.5 lakh fee,” said Monis.

“Even if we meet any lawyer for consultation, some charge Rs 10,000 to 20,000 or Rs 25,000 for one consultation,” said Monis. “We have been wandering here and there, and until now, we have changed 10 lawyers.”

In 2022, when a marriage proposal came for him, Monis said his family accepted, but they were married quietly, without “a function, happiness or relatives”. 

Soon after the marriage, he was forced to sell his wife’s gold bracelet to make ends meet. 

“This is mentally disturbing,” said Monis.

“Like me, many others were also tortured in jails, but we believe in the judiciary,” said Ahmed. “You can do it when you have faith in the judiciary and fight to the last breath.”

(Muhammad Tahir is an independent journalist based in Delhi.)

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