Uttar Pradesh STF nabs another Kerala PFI worker in Hathras case; arrested planned riots with Kappan over phone

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh special task force arrested a member of the banned outfit PFI on Friday. The police arrested the PFI member Kamal KP from his house in Melattur, Malappuram in Kerala. Kamal had a bounty of Rs 25000 on his head and was wanted for hatching a conspiracy in the Hathras case of 2020.

A volley of protests erupted after a 19-year-old Dalit girl was burned to death in Hathras in 2020. Following a crackdown, the police brought out the inciteful and vile role played behind the veil by the banned Islamic outfit PFI. According to police, they smeared a religious angle into the issue. Kamal was zeroed in by the police after the officials found his number being dialed by earlier arrested Sidhique Kappan many times during the protest. A voice note was sent to Kamal KP from Kappan in which code word was used for calling a secret meeting. In this meeting, a conspiracy was hatched to instigate riots in Hathras.

The police for long made it a certitude about the PFI's role in aggrandizing the Hathras protest. The arrest of journalist Siddique Kappan was condemned by the journalist factions of the country. Besides Siddique Kappan, radical Islamist outfit PFI members Masood Ahmed, Rauf Sharif, Anshad Badruddin, Atiqur Rahman, and Firoz Khan were also booked by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF).