NewsClick Arrests: Delhi Court Remands Prabir Purkayastha, HR Head To Police Custody Till November 02 In UAPA Case

A Delhi Court on Wednesday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources head Amit Chakraborty to police custody till November 02 in the UAPA case registered following allegations of the portal receiving money for pro-China propaganda.

Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts passed the order after the duo was produced in court on the expiry of their judicial custody.

The Delhi Police had sought 9 days of custody remand for Purkayastha and Chakraborty.

Earlier, the duo was remanded to seven days of police custody which was upheld by the Delhi High Court. The duo has now moved the Supreme Court challenging the dismissal of their petitions challenging their police remand.

Purkayastha and Chakraborty were arrested on October 03. They were remanded to seven days of police custody on October 04. Later, they were sent to judicial custody for 10 days which was extended to five more days.

While seeking their police custody today, APP Atul Srivastava submitted that the Delhi Police wants to confront Purkayastha and Chakroborty with some protected witnesses.

Srivastava also told court that the duo also have to be confronted with data extracted from some of the devices which were examined by the Delhi Police.

On the other hand, Advocate Arshdeep Singh appearing for Purkayastha submitted that the test to obtain second police remand is much higher and that the ground to unearth larger conspiracy in the case was also taken by the Delhi Police on the first day.

If they [Delhi Police] were so serious about the investigation, did they go to them in judicial custody to show them the documents?….All of this they want to do here can be done in judicial custody…..This shows the conduct of the agency, Singh said.

The allegations came to light after a New York Times report published on August 5th alleged that online media outlet NewsClick had received funds from China to create an “anti-India” atmosphere.

This was followed by a series of raids by the Delhi police into the residences of journalists and writers , both past and present, associated with Newsclick.

A statement was issued by the news portal yesterday claiming that it was not provided with a copy of the FIR, or informed about the exact particulars of the offences with which it was charged.

“Electronic devices were seized from the Newsclick premises and homes of employees, without any adherence to due process such as the provision of seizure memos, hash values of the seized data, or even copies of the data. Newsclick’s office has also been sealed in a blatant attempt at preventing us from continuing our reporting,” the statement said.

It added that Newsclick strongly condemn the actions of a Government that “refuses to respect journalistic independence, and treats criticism as sedition or anti-national propaganda.”

“Newsclick has been targeted by a series of actions by various agencies of the Government of India since 2021. Its offices and residences of officials have been raided by the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police and the Income Tax Department. All devices, laptops, gadgets, phones, etc. have been seized in the past. All emails and communications have been analysed under the microscope. All bank statements, invoices, expenses incurred and sources of funds received by Newsclick in the last several years have been scrutinised by different agencies of the Government from time to time,” it added.

Prior to the NYT report, NewsClick was facing another investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) based on allegations of money laundering. This had initiated multiple raids by ED into the premises of the editors and the case is still pending.

NewsClick and Purkayastha had earlier approached the Delhi High Court seeking a copy of the ECIR registered by ED in September 2020 in the money laundering case, which had passed interim orders on June 21, 2021 and July 20 directing the ED not to take any coercive action against the website and its editor in chief.

Subsequently, ED had sought vacation of two orders passed by a co-ordinate bench on June 21, 2021 and July 20, 2021.