An 8,000-page charge sheet, carried in a trunk by two people, was filed in the UAPA case against NewsClick, its founder, and the head of the HR department, Amit Chakravarty. Editors, co-founders, and employees of the news portal have been named in the charge sheet, according to the police. The Delhi Police Special Cell filed the final report before Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur.
According to special public prosecutors Akhand Pratap Singh and Suraj Rathi, the charge sheet names Purkayastha and PPK NEWSCLICK Studio Private Limited as the accused.
The matter has been scheduled for a hearing on April 16.
Allegations
On August 8, 2023, The New York Times published a report stating that the portal received money from Chinese entities through American businessman Neville Roy Singham. Singham was accused of actively spreading Chinese propaganda in India and abroad. He was summoned in November 2023 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case against NewsClick. The news portal was accused of “disrupting the sovereignty of India” and causing disaffection against the country.
Another accusation involves a conspiracy with the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
In March 2019, a group of people, including writers, journalists, professors, social activists, artists, and filmmakers, signed a letter under the banner of the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism, a civil society organization formed in 2014. The letter requested that opposition parties unite for the upcoming 2019 elections to “undo the most insidious actions of the Modi regime” and to promote democracy and secularism.
Even though PADS is no longer active, its name has been associated with the accusations against Prabir Purkayastha and NewsClick regarding the 2019 elections. However, Prabir’s name does not appear among the signatories. Since its foundation in 2009, NewsClick has openly criticized the Modi regime.
Purkayastha was accused by activist Gautam Navlakha of discussing “how to create a map of India without Kashmir and to show Arunachal Pradesh as a disputed area.”
In 2021, NewsClick was raided by the Enforcement Directorate and was under scrutiny by the Income Tax Department. In October last year, Delhi police raided the homes of numerous journalists and individuals connected to the news website. 88 locations in Delhi and seven other states were searched for suspects.
On October 3, 2023, NewsClick’s founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty were arrested.
The Case
The Delhi Police Special registered a case under sections 13 (unlawful activities), 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), and 22C (offenses by companies, societies, and trusts) of UAPA, as well as sections 153A (promoting enmity) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
On October 13, their pleas against arrest and subsequent police remand in the case were rejected.
On November 2, a Delhi court sent Purkayastha and Chakravarty to judicial custody until December 1 in the case.
In December, the court granted an extension to the Delhi Police to file the charge sheet and repeated the same in February 2024. Meanwhile, NewsClick’s bank accounts were frozen on December 18, rendering them unable to make any payments.
On March 20, the court instructed the Delhi Police to file the final report within 10 days after receiving no submissions from the public prosecutors.
In January of this year, Chakravarty requested permission to become an approver and provide material information, which the court approved.
The news portal has consistently denied the allegations. Their website states, “The allegations in the FIR, apart from being ex facie untenable and bogus, have been made time and again in investigations by three government agencies: the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, and the Income Tax Department. None of these investigations has led to any charge sheets or complaints over the last three years. Prabir was granted interim protection in these investigations. The latest FIR has been registered only to circumvent this protection and carry out illegal arrests under the draconian UAPA,” the statement said.
