Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Newsclick, and Amit Chakraborty, the website’s human resources head, petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to challenge his arrest and detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for alleged Chinese funding to promote anti-national propaganda.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra directed senior attorney Kapil Sibal, who represented the petitioners, to circulate the case files before making a decision on listing the matter.
“This is the NewsClick matter… the journalists are in police custody… a 70-year old plus man is in custody,” Sibal informed the court. Purkayastha and Chakraborty have petitioned the Supreme Court, appealing the Delhi High Court’s decision to sustain the trial court’s order remanding them in police custody. They have since been remanded in jail.
They were arrested on October 3 by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police after it searched 30 places associated with the online news portal and its journalists in a case filed under the UAPA in response to claims that it accepted money for pro-China propaganda.
Purkayastha and Chakravarty then petitioned the High Court, disputing their arrest as well as the 7-day police detention, and seeking immediate release as an interim measure.
According to the FIR, substantial sums of money were sent to the news outlet from China in order to “disrupt India’s sovereignty” and sow discontent with the country.
Purkayastha was also accused of conspiring with a group called People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to subvert the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The High Court dismissed their appeals on Friday, saying that “the fact that serious offences affecting the petitioner’s stability, integrity, sovereignty, and national security have been alleged against the petitioner, this Court is not inclined to pass any favourable orders.”
