NewsClick Founder Prabir Purkayastha, HR Head Move Delhi High Court Challenging Arrest In UAPA Case, Hearing Today

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources head Amit Chakravarty have moved the Delhi High Court challenging their arrest in the UAPA case registered against them following allegations of the portal receiving money for pro-China propaganda.

The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal.

Sibal said that the arrest is entirely illegally. The bench allowed the matter to be listed today.

Purkayastha and Chakravarty have also challenged the FIR registered by Delhi Police’s Special Cell as well as the trial court order remanding them to police custody for seven days till October 10.

Earlier this week, while remanding the duo to police custody, the trial court had agreed to hand over the copy of the remand application filed by the Delhi Police to their counsel. Yesterday, the judge ordered that they be supplied with copy of the FIR.

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. The Delhi High Court recently issued notice on an application moved by the Enforcement Directorate.