Newsclick website founder Purkayastha and HR head arrested: Raid in case of illegal activity and Chinese funding, action taken at 30 locations

Delhi Police taking away Prabir Purkayastha, founder of Newsclick website, in a car.

On the night of October 3, Delhi Police arrested Newsclick website founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakraborty. He is accused of taking funding from abroad. Police raided more than 30 locations in the morning.

Police said that 46 suspects were interrogated in the case, including 37 men and 9 women. The men were interrogated at the Delhi Police Special Cell office and the women at their residence. Those interrogated include journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakraborty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjay Guha as well as historian Sohail Hashmi. They were released after about 6 hours of interrogation.

The police asked him 25 questions related to various issues including his foreign travel, protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, farmers’ movement. Journalists allege that their laptop and mobile have been confiscated.

The documents seized from different locations of Newsclick were brought to the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

Congress, AAP and SP as well as the Press Club of India have criticized the raids. The opposition alliance said that the government is trying to suppress the truth. At the same time, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said in a meeting in Bhubaneswar that the investigating agencies in the country are independent and work as per the law.

Editors Guild said another attempt to control the media
The Editors Guild said this action is another attempt to rein in the media. Harsh laws should not be used to intimidate or suppress freedom of expression and critical voices. The Press Club of India said it was concerned about the raids on journalists. We stand in solidarity with the journalists.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were taken by the police from their house for questioning.

NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was brought to the Special Cell office of Delhi Police.

Earlier, journalists associated with Newsclick, Abhisar Sharma, Urmilesh and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta were taken away by the police. A team of Mumbai Police also reached the house of activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai.

Delhi Police has taken this action under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). On August 5, the New York Times released a report stating that Newsclick was financed by an American billionaire Novel Roy Singham. They fund organizations around the world including India to promote Chinese propaganda.

On the basis of this report, a case was registered against Newsclick on August 17. Section 153 (A) of IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race) as well as several sections of UAPA (13, 16, 17, 18 and 22) have been imposed against them.

Section 16 – related to terrorist matters, Section 17 – raising funding for terrorist activities, Section 18 – punishment for conspiracy, Section 22C – punishment for crimes committed by companies.

Mumbai Police reached Teesta’s house, no details of action taken
Police also reached the house of social activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai. Teesta has been writing articles for the Newsclick website. However, the police have not yet said anything about Teesta’s connection with this case. Teesta was granted bail by the Supreme Court on July 19 in a case related to Gujarat riots. He was arrested on June 25 last year.

Mumbai Police reached the house of activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai.

Abhisar Sharma said- Police took away my phone and laptop

Prominent among the journalists who were raided are Prabir Purkayastha, Sanjay Rajoura, Urmilesh, Bhasha Singh, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Onindo Chakraborty, Abhisar Sharma and Sohail Hashmi. It is being said that all these news websites are linked to Newsclick. Abhisar Sharma lives in Noida and Urmilesh lives in Ghaziabad.

Many of these journalists have tweeted that the police have raided their houses and confiscated their mobile phones and laptops.

Press Club of India has expressed protest regarding this raid…

High Court had stayed the arrest of Purkayastha
Earlier, on August 22, Delhi High Court had given notice to Prabir Purkayastha, Editor in Chief of Newsclick. This notice was given on the petition of the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police. In the petition, the police had appealed to withdraw the interim order of the court, in which there was a ban on taking strict action against the news site.

In fact, on July 7, 2021, Delhi High Court had ordered not to arrest Prabir Purkayastha. However, the court had said that Purkayastha will have to cooperate in the investigation as per the instructions of the authorities. Following the petition by Delhi Police, the court had sought a reply from Purkayastha in this matter.

Billionaire Singham gives money all over the world for China’s propaganda

The American newspaper New York Times had released this report on August 5. It was said that American billionaire Novel Roy Singham has given money to many organizations of the world to promote Chinese propaganda. These also include India’s Newsclick website.

A report appeared in the New York Times on August 5, 2023. It was reported in the report that some groups in Britain and America are busy promoting China’s propaganda. When these organizations were investigated, it was revealed that they were being funded by an American millionaire Neville Roy Singham.

According to the Times, Neville Roy does not work directly on the instructions of the Chinese government. However, he is associated with those organizations which glorify China’s achievements in the world.

The New York Times investigation revealed that many groups are associated with Singham, including a think tank in Massachusetts, an organization in Manhattan, a political party in South Africa, news organizations in India and Brazil. They have resources worth billions of dollars.

Singham runs ThoughtWorks, a software consultancy company in Chicago. An Indian news website is also linked to it. Singham, 69, lives in Shanghai. There his network runs a show on YouTube. The Propaganda Department of Shanghai also gives some money for this.

No group associated with Singham is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Registration of groups running campaigns to influence public opinion on behalf of other countries is necessary.

Read the full report of New York Times by clicking here

Newsclick issue was raised in Parliament
During the monsoon session on August 7, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in the Lok Sabha had raised the issue of Chinese funding to Newsclick by citing the New York Times report.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur also alleged in a press conference that ‘Congress, China and the controversial news website Newsclick are connected by the same umbilical cord. Neighboring stuff can be clearly seen in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘fake love shop’. His love for China is visible. They are running an anti-India campaign.

Anurag Thakur said that when I talk about News Click and its funding, there were raids against it in India. It contains information about where the money was taken from and where the money came from. If you look at their funding network, Novel Roy Singham funded it. The funding came to him from China.

Two years ago Income Tax had raided the office of Newsclick.

As soon as the Income Tax team arrived, the mobile phones of the employees present in the office were switched off.

In September 2021, the Income Tax Department also raided the offices of online portals News Laundry and Newsclick. This action was taken to investigate tax evasion. The Income Tax Department had confirmed that its team had reached the offices of these two websites in South Delhi. However, the Income Tax Department called this action a survey instead of a raid. Read the full news here…