The Supreme Court will hear a plea filed by Newsclick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and the website's HR head Amit Chakraborty challenging their arrest and detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) over alleged Chinese funding to promote anti-national propaganda tomorrow.

 


This comes after 'NewsClick' founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR Head Amit Chakravarty approached the top court challenging their arrest and detention 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.


 

Earlier, a Delhi High Court bench dismissed the plea against the arrest and subsequent police remand of Purkayastha and Chakravarty in the case.

 

The Delhi High Court on October 12 dismissed their plea against the arrest and subsequent police remand in the case.


The high court rejected their contention that they ought to have been supplied with the grounds of arrest when they were apprehended by police and said the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) does not mandate furnishing the grounds in writing and only speaks of the accused being "informed" about the reasons for arrest, news agency PTI reported.


The high court, however, said it would be “advisable” that the police henceforth provide the grounds of arrest in writing to an accused after redacting “sensitive material”.


While dimissing the petitions, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela had said there was no “procedural infirmity” or violation of legal or constitutional provisions in relation to the arrest and the remand order is sustainable in law, the news report added.


“After examining the entire issue in the right perspective, it appears as of now that the grounds of arrest were indeed conveyed to the petitioner, as soon as may be, after the arrest and as such, there does not appear to be any procedural infirmity or violation of the provisions of the Section 43B of the UAPA or the Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India and as such, the arrest are in accordance with law,” the court had stated.


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.