NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty have moved Delhi High Court, seeking to quash the FIR registered by Delhi police for allegedly receiving money to pro-China propaganda.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned their plea before the bench led by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma. The bench also comprises Justice Sanjeev Narula.
Urging the bench to list the plea on Friday, October 6, Sibal said, “This is the NewsClick matter where the arrest has been made entirely illegally. Can that be listed today? We’ve got the diary number. We’ve also filed the another plea which has a diary number.”
The matter is set to be heard by a single judge bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gadela on Friday.
Purkayastha and Chakravarty were arrested in connection with the alleged funding to the NewsClick from China to peddle fake narrative about the central government.
The Delhi police had on Thursday questioned journalists Urmilesh and Abhisar Sharma for a second time this week. A total of 46 journalists and contributor to the NewsClick were questioned on Tuesday and their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets were seized.
According to the remand copy the Delhi Police submitted in the court on Wednesday, the “illegally routed foreign funds” have been siphoned off by Purkayastha and his associates — Joseph Raj, Anoop Chakraborty (brother of Amit Chakraborty) and Bappaditya Sinha (promoter of Virtunet Systems Pvt Ltd).
“It is also learnt that aforementioned funds were distributed to Gautam Navlakha, associates of Teesta Seetalwaad namely Javed Anand, Tamara, Jibran, Urmilesh, Aratrika Halder, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Trina Shankar, Abhisar Sharma, etc.,” it stated.
The police sealed NewsClick’s office in Delhi, officials said, adding that 46 suspects were questioned and digital devices, including laptops and mobile phones, and documents taken away for examination.
(with inputs from PTI)
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