NewsClick Founder, HR Head Sent To Judicial Custody Till December 1 In 'Chinese Funding' Row

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty have been sent to judicial custody till December 1 in the 'Chinese funding' case.

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty have been sent to judicial custody till December 1 in the 'Chinese funding' case.

Source : PTI

A Delhi court has sent NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty to judicial custody till December 1 in connection with the 'Chinese funding' allegations. They were produced before the court after their police remand period today.

Last month, the Delhi Police special cell arrested them under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that the news portal had received huge amounts of money for pro-China propaganda.

Purkayastha had earlier told a Delhi court that "not a penny has come from China". 

Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty were sent to police custody by the court on October 25 and their custody came to an end today. They were arrested by the police after extensive raids linked to their premises and on their journalists on October 3 in an anti-terror case on charges of receiving funding for pro-China propaganda. They were also accused of attempting to sabotage the 2019 Lok Sabha electoral process.

 

 

According to the FIR filed in the case, the portal received a large amount of funds from China to "disrupt the sovereignty of India" and cause disaffection against the country. It also accused Purkayastha of conspiring with a group -- People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) -- to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

 

Ahead of the arrest, which came under heavy criticism from the Opposition, around 88 locations in Delhi and seven in other states were raided and around 300 electronic gadgets were seized from the portal's offices and houses of journalists who were with the portal. As many as 46 individuals were questioned by the police in Delhi and NCR, reported PTI.