NewsClick Editor Prabir Purkayastha Ordered To Be Released by Supreme Court

NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha was arrested by Delhi Police in October 2023 in connection with a UAPA case.

NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was arrested on 3 October 2023.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 15 May, ordered the release of NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha after he spent 225 days behind bars in connection with a UAPA case filed by the Delhi Police Special Cell.

Notably, the apex court held that the arrest and remand of Purkayastha by the Delhi Police was invalid in the eyes of the law, according to a report by LiveLaw.

"There is no hesitation in the mind of the Court to reach to a conclusion that a copy of the remand application, in the purported exercise of the communication of the grounds of arrest in writing, was not provided to the accused-appellant or his counsel before the passing of the remand order dated 4th October, 2023, which vitiates the arrest and the subsequent remand of the appellant," the Supreme Court was quoted as saying.

"As a result, the appellant is entitled to a direction for release from custody by applying the ration of the judgment rendered by this court in Pankaj Bansal," it added.

The judgment was delivered by a two judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.