Delhi High Court Extends Interim Protection To Newsclick Founder In Money Laundering Case Till September 2

The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended interim protection granted to PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited and its Founder Prabir Purkayastha, till September 2 in connection with the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate.

The company owns the portal NewsClick.in.

Justice Mukta Gupta adjourned hearing of the plea for quashing of ECIR and extended interim protection till September 2. Notice in the matter was issued on July 5. The Court had also thereby directed for providing a copy of the ECIR to the Petitioner-accused.

Reportedly, the Enforcement Directorate had raided the premises of NewsClick and residences of its editors in February this year in connection with money laundering case for search and seizure.

The allegations against the petitioner company PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd is that they had received foreign direct investment by overvaluing the share to avoid the 26% cap of FDI requirement. The estimated FDI amount is ₹9.59 crore. Accordingly, Enforcement Directorate had initiated probe and conducted search operations in connection with the case.

The interim protection was first granted by a vacation bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna. It had also directed Purkayastha to join the investigation as and when required by the Investigating Officer.