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NewsClick founder, HR head in 10-day custody
A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the website’s human resource department chief Amit Chakraborty to 10 days in judicial custody
A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the website’s human resource department chief Amit Chakraborty to 10 days in judicial custody in connection with a case registered by Delhi Police’s special cell against the portal under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
In an order issued late on Tuesday evening, additional sessions judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur sent the two men to Tihar jail till October 20. Purkayastha and Chakraborty were arrested on October 3 after 400 police officials raided around 30 locations across Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai and Ghaziabad, questioning 46 people, including journalists, freelancers, writers and satirists, for eight hours.
Appearing for Delhi Police, additional public prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava sought 10 days judicial custody for Purkayastha and Chakraborty, submitting that police custody as of now was not needed but adding that the special cell reserved the right to seek further police custody.
Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurrana, appearing for Purkayastha, opposed the judicial custody and told the court that the arrest and remand were both challenged before the Delhi high court, which reserved its order on Monday.
The two men had told the high court that they should be freed because they were neither provided the grounds of arrest nor heard adequately.
Khurrana pointed out that the high court previously granted protection to NewsClick and Purkayastha in cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2021 and argued that the UAPA case was registered to circumvent the protection.
Appearing for Chakraborty, advocate Rohit Sharma also opposed the judicial custody, arguing that his client was only a shareholder who had done some administrative work for the company and was not involved in any journalistic activities.
On August 17, Delhi Police’s special cell registered a case under section 153A (promoting enmity) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 16 (terrorist act),17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), and 22C (offences by companies, societies or trusts) of UAPA.
This came days after an investigation published in The New York Times alleged that the portal was part of a global network that received money for pushing Chinese propaganda. The American newspaper said that millionaire Neville Roy Singham funded NewsClick, among other outlets across the globe, to sprinkle its coverage with Chinese government talking points.
The FIR alleged that Purkayastha allegedly conspired with a group named Peoples Alliance for Democracy and Secularism to sabotage the 2019 general elections and Chinese firms such as Xiaomi and Vivo illegally incorporated shell companies to infuse foreign funds to disrupt India’s sovereignty.
The news portal first ran into trouble in 2021 when the Enforcement Directorate registered a case based on a first information report (FIR) by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offence Wing in 2020. The allegations pertained to overvaluing of shares, diverting funds, and violation of FDI regulations.
NewsClick has repeatedly rejected all charges, saying that proceedings against it were a “blatant attempt” to muzzle the free press.
“The allegations in the FIR, apart from being ex facie untenable and bogus, have been made time and again, in investigations by three government agencies – the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police, and the income tax department. None of these investigations led to any charge sheets or complaints over the last three years. In fact, Prabir was granted interim protection in these investigations. The latest FIR has been registered only to circumvent this protection and carry out illegal arrests under the draconian UAPA,” it said in a statement.
Last week, the Delhi high court refused to grant interim bail to the website’s founder and HR head, saying that the allegations against them were not of such a nature where immediate relief could be given. “ You may be right or wrong, but we’ll have to give them (Delhi Police) a hearing,” justice Tushar Rao Gedela told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the two arrested men.
