'NewsClick' founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR Head Amit Chakravarty knocked on the door of the Supreme Court challenging their arrest and detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with allegations of the portal receiving Chinese funding to promote 'anti-national' propaganda. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the editor, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before the Supreme Court. "This is the NewsClick matter. The journalists are in police custody. Here one of the accused is a 75-year-old man,” Sibal said.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of Sibal and asked him to circulate the case papers. The CJI said he would take a call on the listing.
This comes after a Delhi High Court bench dismissed the plea against the arrest and subsequent police remand of Purkayastha and Chakravarty in the case. Both were arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on October 3. They subsequently moved the high court challenging the arrest as well as the seven-day police custody and sought immediate release as interim relief. On October 10, the trial court sent them to judicial custody for 10 days.
Purkayastha had earlier told a Delhi court that "not a penny has come from China".
The FIR in the case stated that the news portal allegedly received large amounts of funds that came from China to "disrupt the sovereignty of India" and cause disaffection against the country. It further alleged that Purkayastha conspired with a group -- People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) -- to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general elections.
Last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation in the case and filed an FIR in the matter. The central agency also raided two locations linked to the firm.