On December 6, a Lucknow court indicted Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan in a case brought by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). District Judge Sanjay Shankar Pandey framed charges against Kappan and six others under Sections 3 (money laundering offence) and 4 (money laundering punishment) of the PMLA.

Charges in the predicate offence have not yet been filed. The hearing will start on December 17th. Kappan was represented by lawyers Ishan Baghel and Mohd Khalid. On October 31, a sessions court in Lucknow denied Kappan's bail request in the ED-initiated PMLA case. The Supreme Court granted Kappan bail in the case filed against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in September 2022. (UAPA).

Kappan, a reporter for the Malayalam news portal Azhimukham and the secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), was arrested in Uttar Pradesh with three others in October 2020, while on his way to Hathras to report on the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl. He was then arrested under the UAPA and then the PMLA. He was denied bail in the UAPA case by lower courts and the Allahabad High Court before the Supreme Court granted him relief. He remained in prison, however, because he had yet to be granted bail in the PMLA case.