A local court in Kerala granted bail to Aslah Kayyalakkath, the editor of online news agency Maktoob Media, for reporting the 2023 blast case in Kozhikode district.
The Vadakara Judicial First Class Magistrate Court granted the bail on Wednesday, February 4.
The blasts took place on October 23, 2023, at a convention centre where a prayer meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – a Christian religious group – was underway. Five people had died in the incident.
The Kerala Police filed a suo motu case and subsequently arrested Dominik Martin, a member of the church, who later confessed to the crime.
At that time, the Maktoob Media editor filed a report criticising the Kerala Police for detaining Muslim men without a proper investigation in the case.
Following this, the police filed a case against Kayyalakkath, freelance reporter Rejaz who reported the story, and advocate Ameen Hassan, a Muslim lawyer who was quoted in the report.
Now free, Kayyalakkath took to his X and said, “An FIR for journalism. An FIR for a quote. An FIR against a reporter, an editor, and a lawyer. We will continue to fight the case until it is quashed.”
“Journalism is not a crime,” he said.
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