New Delhi: NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the news portal’s HR head Amit Chakraborty were sent to ten days of judicial custody in the Delhi police’s case against them.
Additional sessions judge Hardeep Kaur of the Patiala House Courts passed the order after Purkayastha and Chakraborty were produced in court after the five days of police custody had expired, according to LiveLaw.
The duo was arrested by the Delhi police’s special cell in a terror case which claims that NewsClick received Chinese funding to criticise the Indian government’s policies and promote Chinese propaganda.
Additional public prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava told the court that the Delhi police was seeking judicial custody because their physical presence is not required at this stage.
Purkayastha’s lawyer Arshdeep Singh Khurana, opposing the grant of judicial custody, told the court that a “bare reading of Delhi Police’s FIR would show that there is no criminal offence made out”, let alone the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case, according to LiveLaw.
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“There is no allegation that I’ve used any bomb or dynamite which has caused loss of death and property. There is no allegation that I’ve used any criminal force in the entire FIR. There is no act of kidnapping, detention or abduction. None of the acts attributed to me has any elements of Section 15 of UAPA,” Singh said, according to the report.
Khurana said that a journalist cannot be punished for criticising the government in power. According to Bar and Bench, APP Srivastava responded, “Your purpose was not criticising (the government) but propagating the propaganda of a country that is inimical to us.”
Khurana also reiterated that NewsClick has not received any money from China and all investment came through banking channels and was duly reported to the government.
Rohit Sharma, appearing for NewsClick’s HR head Amit Chakraborty, said his client’s name is not mentioned in the FIR as an accused. While the FIR says Chakravarti owns shares in NewsClick, his holdings in the company equal 0.1%, the lawyer said.
“There is [an] allegation there is money coming in and some news is being published with a particular agenda. I have not been involved in any publication. I am not a journalist, or an editor or writer,” Chakravarti’s lawyer.
According to Bar and Bench, APP Srivastava said that the police had already satisfied the court during the time of police remand that the offences were made out.
“Today it is not a case of first remand. At the time of the first remand, we had satisfied my ladyship with how the offences were made out… We are at the stage of collecting evidence. See our fairness. We have said we don’t need police remand as of now and will ask later if we need it,” he said.
Purkayastha and Chakraborty were arrested on October 3 and were remanded to seven days of police custody on October 4.
The Delhi high court on Monday reserved its order in the pleas moved by Purkayastha and Chakraborty challenging the trial court’s remand order.