‘Judgment vindicates what we’ve always held’: NewsClick founder after Delhi HC quashes money laundering charges

In June 2021, the Delhi HC had granted Purkayastha interim protection against coercive steps in the ED case and a month later, in the EOW case as well.

The protection of anticipatory bail in the EOW case was made final in July 2025. The Delhi HC, while granting the anticipatory bail, had taken the prolonged investigation, as well as the fact that Purkayastha is “a respectable man, aged about 75 years, having roots in the society”, to reason that there is “no likelihood of tampering with the evidence or of influencing the witnesses”.

In August 2023, the Special Cell of Delhi Police carried out extensive raids at the residential and official premises of PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd, and lodged an FIR under the stringent terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Purkayastha was arrested in connection with this FIR on October 3, 2023. He then challenged his arrest and remand and the violation of due procedures of custody, including not being provided with the grounds of arrest. He said he was also not allowed to inform his lawyer before being produced for police remand at the time of his arrest.

The Supreme Court, in a landmark verdict in May 2024,  declaring his arrest and the remand as invalid, had extended procedural safeguards to arrests under the UAPA as well. The verdict came after the Delhi police had filed a chargesheet in this case in March that year. The SC had also directed his release on bail in this case, after he spent seven months in jail.