A year after UAPA accused Kerala-based ‘journalist’ Siddique Kappan was granted bail after serving more than two years behind bars, a report has surfaced describing how he directed the banned Islamist terror outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) ‘hit squad’ to assassinate BJP leaders Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra following the 2020 anti-Hindu riots in Delhi.
According to a report published on March 19, 2024, by a local Malayalam media outlet Janmabhumi, Siddique Kappan, infuriated by the BJP leader’s efforts that thwarted PFI members’ attempts to target Hindus during the 2020 anti-Hindu riots in Delhi, reportedly ordered the now arrested Popular Front of India (PFI) Hit Squad Commander Kamal KP, a native of Malappuram, to kill Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma. The order was given during a meeting held at the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) controlled Green Valley Academy at Manjery in Kerala’s Malappuram district in September 2020. The English-translated archived version of the report by Janmabhumi can be viewed here.
The revelation was made when the NIA interrogated the PFI member Kamal KP and his hit squad members Anshad Badruddin and Firoz Khan. Notably, Kamal KP was arrested on March 3, 2023, from Melattur in the Malappuram district of Kerala for attempting to stir up unrest and incite protests in Hathras in 2020 after the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman there.
Kamal KP was a member of the PFI’s ‘hit squad’ and a mentor of Anshad Badruddin and Firoz Khan who were apprehended with improvised explosive devices (IED) in Lucknow in 2021. Kamal KP was also among the top five members of the PFI.
On the 24th and 25th of February 2020, India’s national capital Delhi saw large-scale anti-Hindu riots which marked the culmination of the hostility, hatred, and anger spread by the anti-CAA protests by the Islamists in Shaheen Bagh and other areas. Shahdara, Maujpur, Bhajanpura, Brahmapuri, and other parts of northeast Delhi witnessed violence perpetrated by the Islamists. 53 people died in these riots while more than 200 people were left injured.
Siddique Kappan directed PFI hit squad to assassinate Kapil Mishra and Pravesh Verma
The Janmabhumi report said that after the anti-Hindu riots broke in the national capital in February 2020, Islamists and members of the banned PFI were going around killing innocent Hindus as per their plan. Even the Delhi Police was infuriated by the crafty planned and executed brute and macabre displays of street violence displayed by the Islamist mobs. At the time when innumerable Hindus were falling victim to this violence, BJP leaders Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma led the Jat and Gujjar forces from Haryana to push back these Islamists. The Jat and Gujjars did what the Delhi Police could not. Angered by this, Badruddin and Firoz Khan were directed to devise a scheme to assassinate the BJP leaders who foiled the PFI insurrection plot.
Accordingly, both of them came to Delhi along with Kappan and stayed together at the National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO) office in the national capital.
Meanwhile, in October 2020, when the country was still reeling under the shock and anger of the worst violence that Delhi had witnessed in the last seven decades, the Hathras incident happened. Siddique Kappan along with other members of PFI and Campus Front of India (CFI) left in one car for Hathras, while Anshad Badruddin and Firoz Khan were sent in another car to execute the task assigned to them. However, Kappan was arrested on the 5th of October 2020, while on his way to Hathras. Scared upon learning about Kappan’s arrest, Badruddin and Firoz Khan dropped their plan and returned to Delhi.
Four months later, in February 2021, Badruddin and Firoz Khan, went to Lucknow with explosives and guns to execute multiple bomb blasts in Lucknow and other parts of UP, where they were apprehended by the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
PFI hit squad were individually coached by PFI’s ‘think tank’ Kappan
After two years in hiding, Kamal KP was also arrested by the UP police on March 4, 2023. When he was interrogated by the NIA in the Lucknow jail, Kamal KP owned up to the plans that were made to assassinate the BJP leaders at the PFI-controlled Green Valley Academy at Manjery in Kerala’s Malappuram district in September 2020. Badruddin and Firoz Khan had earlier confessed in their statement to the magistrate that Siddique Kappan had instructed them to kill the BJP leaders. The details of the plan were, however, revealed when Kamal KP was also interrogated.
They further revealed that the members of the PFI hit squad were individually selected and coached by PFI’s “think tank” Siddique Kappan. KP has verified the UP Police chargesheet, which stated that Kappan is a member of the PFI.
Kappan was granted bail by the Supreme Court on the grounds that he works in the media. The Supreme Court granted bail to Kappan in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act case on September 9, 2022. He stayed in prison, however, due to a pending PMLA lawsuit. In February 2023, the Lucknow Sessions Court finally approved bail orders releasing Kerala-based ‘journalist’ Siddique Kappan from the Lucknow prison in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case as well. The mastermind, Kappan, was granted bail, while Firoz Khan, Kamal KP and Anshad Badaruddin are still in Lucknow jail.
