79-year-old former Lucknow varsity VC comes to Siddique Kappan's rescue, offers to stand surety
New Delhi: The former Vice-Chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma had offered to stand surety for Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan as he is languishing in jail even after being granted bail by the Supreme Court days ago.
The SC had conditioned that Kappan should find two local sureties with each having Rs 1 lakh worth of value either in their account or by way of assets, Verma came forward offering the help.
Unable to find local sureties, 79-year-old Roop Rekha Verma came forward to help Kappan.
Kappan's lawyer Mohamed Dhanish told The Quint that local sureties became necessary because of the "sensitive nature of the case".
Though Kappan received bail in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case nine days before, people are "hesitant" to come forward to help the journalist, his lawyer reportedly said.
Kappan has been in jail for almost two years after he was arrested while on his way to Hathras in 2020 to report the gang-rape and death of a Dalit teenager by 'upper' caste men.
Professor Roop Rekha Verma, who distributes campaign pamphlets on the streets of Lucknow, wants to spread awareness among people to keep the spirit of the 1857 revolution alive, in order to maintain peace and brotherhood in the nation.
She evokes what is known in history as 'The Siege of Lucknow' a prolonged defense of the British Residency in Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Professor Verma strives to shed light on the freedom struggle in order to keep the revolution of freedom alive, thus helping people not to forget history.
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Rohit Sharma lashes out at IPL broadcasters for breaching privacy
New Delhi, May 19: India skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday lashed out at the IPL broadcasters for "breaching" cricketers' privacy by recording their conversations with friends and colleagues at training and on match days and then telecasting the contents.
Rohit expressed his disappointment after a video involving him and Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, in which the former is seen contemplating his future at the Mumbai Indians, went viral.
"The lives of cricketers have become so intrusive that cameras are now recording every step and conversation we are having in privacy with our friends and colleagues, at training or on match days," Rohit posted on X.
He added, "Despite asking Star Sports to not record my conversation, it was and was also then played on air, which is a breach of privacy."
"The need to get exclusive content and focused only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail."
Rohit was seen making a request to the broadcasters to shut down the audio while recording him after his chat with Nayar. The conversation between the two took place after MI's IPL fixture against KKR on May 11.
The audio of the chat was posted by KKR on their social media handle and fans assumed that the cricketer is speaking about leaving MI after the ongoing season.
Following the controversy, the video was taken down by the Knight Riders' social media team.
Few days after that, on May 17, Rohit was once again seen having a chat with Dhawal Kulkarni ahead of MI's fixture against Lucknow Super Giants. Seeing himself being recorded, the opener, with folded hands, requested the broadcaster to turn off the audio as one audio has already got him into trouble.
"Bhai audio band karo haan, already ek audio ne mera waat laga diya (Brother please close the audio, one audio has already made things difficult for me)," said Sharma in the video that also went viral.
