The wife of jailed journalist Siddique Kappan has written to the Chief Justice of India alleging that her husband had been chained to his bed “like an animal” at a Mathura hospital where he is undergoing treatment for Covid-19 and denied permission to even use the toilet.

The lawyer representing Kappan has written to Chief Justice N.V. Ramana on behalf of Raihanath seeking the immediate transfer of the journalist back to Mathura jail, citing inhuman conditions at the hospital where he has been under treatment since Wednesday.

The letter filed by lawyer Wills Mathew stated that Kappan “is chained like an animal” to the bed at KM Medical College Hospital in Mathura and he could neither take food nor visit the toilet since being admitted. “If immediate corrective steps are not taken, it will result in his untimely death,” the letter stated.

The Delhi-based stringer of a Malayalam news portal was arrested while en route to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on October 5 last year to report on the gang rape and murder of a Dalit girl. Three members of the Muslim Right-wing Popular Front of India were arrested along with him from the same car.

While Uttar Pradesh police booked them under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other penal sections for allegedly trying to foment trouble in Mathura, Kappan has denied any links with the organisation and insisted he had been heading to Hathras only as a reporter. They have since been named in a 5,000-page chargesheet filed in a Mathura court.

Raihanath said Kappan had made a desperate call to her around 4.30pm on Saturday from someone’s phone and narrated his predicament.

“He told me how he was chained to the bed as soon as he was admitted to the hospital four days ago and never even once allowed to use the toilet. He was forced to urinate in a plastic bottle,” she told The Telegraph on Sunday.

Kappan had tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.