Arrested NewsClick Founder Prabir Purkayastha "conspired to peddle a narrative" to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as "not part of India," the Delhi Police alleged in a remand application submitted to the Patiala House Court on Wednesday, 4 October.
In the application, accessed by The Quint, the Delhi Police's Special Cell further alleged that electronic evidence including email trails suggested an "act intended towards undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India."
Though the police had initially sought 15-day police custody, Purkayastha and NewsClick's Human Resources (HR) Head Amit Chakravarty were sent to seven-day police custody.
This comes a day after the two individuals were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) amid allegations that NewsClick received money for propagating pro-China narratives.
A Delhi court on Thursday, 5 October allowed Purkayastha's plea seeking a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) filed under the UAPA case.
'Secret Inputs' On 'Illegal' Foreign Funds: Police Tells Court
The remand application was filed in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur at the Patiala House Court by Special Cell Assistant Commissioner of Police Lalit Mohan Negi.
This came after a New York Times (NYT) report published in August 2023 alleged that the news portal is one of the organisations funded by US-based tech mogul Neville Roy Singham for "pushing Chinese propaganda."
The police said that it received "secret inputs" that Purkayastha, Singham, and the employees of his Shanghai-based company "exchanged mails that exposed their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India."
"Such attempts by these persons reveal their conspiracy to peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories," the police told the court.
They had allegedly received “more than Rs 115 crore” in the “guise of foreign funds”, the police said.
In its remand application, the Special Cell stated there were also “secret inputs” 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 sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, security of India."
The Delhi Police also claimed it learned that Purkayastha allegedly conspired with a group – People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) – to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
"It is also learned that the People’s Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by M/S PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd., has been 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," the police told the court.
Gautam Navlakha's Alleged Links to NewsClick
According to the police, the "illegal" foreign funds received by Purkayastha were distributed to Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha, activist Teesta Setalvad, journalists Urmilesh, Pranjoy Guha Thakurta, and Abhisar Sharma.
“He (Navlakha) remained involved in anti-Indian and unlawful activities such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having anti-national nexus,” police said.
The remand also mentioned that Navlakha has been a shareholder in NewsClick since 2018, and has been associated with Purkayastha since 1991.
'Need To Unearth Whole Conspiracy'
According to the police, the 3 October raids was conducted at 88 locations in Delhi, and seven locations in other states on the suspects named in the FIR and surfaced in the analysis of the data.
“During raid huge number of electronics devices and documents were seized. A number of suspects including the above mentioned accused persons namely Pratik Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty.... Both the accused persons were kept on sustained interrogation which revealed their involvement in the case,” they further said.
The Delhi Police sought the remand of Purkayastha and Chakravarty for 15 days, saying they needed to be interrogated to "unearth the whole conspiracy" over the 4.3 lakh email dump extracted from the electronic devices of the accused.
The two accused would be interrogated over the contents of the email, which showed a conspiracy to create disaffection among various sections of society, it said.
Further, the police added that the raids at the NewsClick office are yet to be completed.
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