Is India’s free press not so free after a decade of Modi?

New Delhi CNN —

These days, journalist Siddique Kappan avoids controversial stories.

Last time he chased a major story, a shocking rape-and-murder case, it landed the father of three in jail for more than two years, and severely damaged his career and livelihood. The 44-year-old blames his incarceration on a worsening climate for journalists in India, where arrests and harassment are growing more common.

And he is far from the only journalist feeling squeezed out of their industry during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade-long rule.

The government of the popular but divisive leader — who has not taken a single solo press conference while in office — stands accused by opponents of suppressing media pluralism and ratcheting up the use of anti-terror legislation against reporters.

And as Modi looks to win another five years in power in an ongoing nationwide election, critics fear further erosion of the protections afforded to India’s free press.

“I think many times before I write stories,” Kappan told CNN. “Anytime, anywhere, anyone can file a case against me.”

Journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested in October 2020 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, walks out of jail after being granted bail in a money laundering case, in Lucknow on February 2, 2023.

In October 2020, Kappan was working as a freelancer for a Malayalam-language news website. He was on his way to Hathras district, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, to report on the alleged gang rape and killing of a Dalit teenager by upper-caste men. India’s caste system was officially abolished decades ago, but the social hierarchy imposed on people by birth still exists in many aspects of life. Dalits are on the lowest rung.

Before he arrived at the scene,