A Delhi court on Tuesday send NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the portal's HR head Amit Chakraborty to ten-day judicial custody in the case filed under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The duo was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on October 3 over allegations that the portal received funds for pro-China propaganda.
Last week, the Delhi high court had 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.
“The allegations don’t seem to be of such a nature that can give you immediate relief. 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.
Last Tuesday, at least 400 Delhi Police officials had raided 30 locations in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, questioning 46 people inlcuding journalists, freelancers, writers and satirists. The crackdown took place following 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 portal founded in 2009 ran into trouble in 2021 when the ED registered a case based on an FIR registered by Delhi Police's Economic Offence Wing in 2020. The allegations included overvaluing of shares, diverting funds, and violation of FDI regulations.
A year later, the central agency searched the premises of the website and its founder Purkayastha. A Delhi Police officer told HT that the company allegedly received crores of funds for the services, out of which ₹1.55 crore was made to an electrician. "Puryakastha and Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, have incorporated a company together with an American defence supplier company. We have found some e-mails exchanged between Puryakastha and Neville Roy Singham, which were aimed to tarnish India’s image at the international level,” the officer added.
The portal founded in 2009 ran into trouble in 2021 when the ED registered a case based on an FIR registered by Delhi Police's Economic Offence Wing in 2020. The allegations included overvaluing of shares, diverting funds, and violation of FDI regulations.
A year later, the central agency searched the premises of the website and its founder Purkayastha. A Delhi Police officer told HT that the company allegedly received crores of funds for the services, out of which ₹1.55 crore was made to an electrician. "Puryakastha and Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, have incorporated a company together with an American defence supplier company. We have found some e-mails exchanged between Puryakastha and Neville Roy Singham, which were aimed to tarnish India’s image at the international level,” the officer added.