NewsClick Row: Court allows Prabir Purkayastha, Amit Chakravarty plea seeking supply of FIR Copy

Additional Sessions Judge Dr Hardeep Kaur allowed to serve the copy of FIR registered against NewsClick founder and others under stringent sections of UAPA.

New Delhi: The Patiala House Court of Delhi on Thursday allowed a plea moved by Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources Head Amit Chakravarty for supply of First Information Report to them.

Additional Sessions Judge Dr Hardeep Kaur allowed to serve the copy of FIR registered against NewsClick founder and others under stringent sections of UAPA.

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Yesterday, the Court allowed Prabir Purkayastha’s lawyers to meet him for one hour daily during remand period.

Earlier, the Court allowed the Delhi Police remand plea and sent the founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources Head Amit Chakravarty to seven days of police remand on Wednesday.

Delhi Police on Wednesday alleged that NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha conspired to peddle the narrative that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories with the help of a Shanghai-based company.

Delhi Police informed the court that secret inputs revealed that Prabir Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham (said to be an active member of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China) and some other Chinese employees of Neville Roy Singham-owned Shanghai-based Company by the name of StarStream have exchanged emails which expose their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India.

Delhi Police said such attempts by these persons reveal their conspiracy to peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories.

“Their attempts to tinker with the northern borders of India and to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not parts of India in maps amount to an act intended towards undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India,” said Delhi Police.

The accused persons have also conspired to disrupt supplies and services essential to the life and abet damage and destruction of property by protraction of farmers’ protests through such illegal foreign funding, they added.

A false narrative has been propagated to discredit the efforts of the Indian Govt to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It was learnt that Prabir Purkayastha conspired with a group namely People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general elections, as per Delhi Police.

“People’s Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by M/S PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd was used for intentionally peddling these false narratives through paid news in lieu of crores of rupees of illegally routed foreign funds as part of a conspiracy,” said the police in Court while seeking Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources Head of the news portal NewsClick, Amit Chakravarty’s remand.

According to the Delhi Police, secret inputs have been received that foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, security of India.

Since April 2018, such fraudulent funds in crores of rupees have been received by M/S PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd through illegal means during a short span of five years from M/s Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA and others.

The remand application moved in Delhi Court stated that Prabir Purkayastha, Amit Sengupta, Doraiswami Raghunandan, Bappaditya Sinha, Gautam Navlakha, Geeta Hariharan, Amit Chakravarty and M/S Worldwide Media Holding LLC are shareholders of “PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd” having its registered office at New Delhi.

“Such foreign funds have been fraudulently infused by one Neville Roy Singham through a complex web of several entities including M/s Worldwide Media Holdings (incorporated by Jason Pfetcher, a close associate of Neville Roy Singham, People Support foundation (Jodie Evans, wife of Neville Roy Singham being director), Justice and Education Fund, M/s GSPAN LLC (owned by Neville Roy Singham), The Tricontinental Ltd Inc US, Centro Popular De Midas, Brazil.” It was learnt that both Tricontinental India Pvt Ltd and GSPAN India Pvt Ltd were incorporated by The Tricontinental Ltd, USA and GSPAN LLC USA respectively to infuse funds in India by circumventing the existing rules for receipt of foreign funds by NGOs.

Further, it is learnt that Gautam Navlakha who has been a shareholder in PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd since its inception in the year 2018, remained involved in anti-Indian and unlawful activities such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai who is an agent of ISI of Pakistan.

It was also learnt that Gautam Navlakha has been associated with Prabir Purkayastha since 1991 when they incorporated Sagrik Process Analyst Pvt Ltd, stated Delhi Police.