NewsClick case: Delhi Police submit sanction orders to prosecute Prabir Purkayastha in UAPA case

Purkayastha and Chakraborty have been accused of receiving illegal funding from China, routed through the United States. The Special Cell registered an FIR in August 2023 under sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In November, the two were sent to a month’s judicial custody. The FIR also mentioned Purkayastha’s “friendship since 1991” with rights activist Gautam Navlakha, who is under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case.

Among allegations detailed by the Special Cell in its FIR against Purkayastha were attempts to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as “not parts of India”, discrediting the Indian government’s fight against Covid, funding the farmers’ agitation, and “putting up a spirited defence of legal cases” against Chinese telecom companies such as Xiaomi and Vivo.

Material confiscated from NewsClick is taken away on Tuesday. (PTI)

Purkayastha and Chakraborty were arrested following day-long searches at over 50 locations linked to the news portal, its employees and contributors. After the searches, which were carried out across the National Capital Region and Mumbai, the police said a total of 46 “suspects” had been questioned and their “digital devices” seized. The police also sealed the news portal’s office in Delhi.

In its remand application, which The Indian Express had accessed earlier, the Special Cell stated there were “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 remand application also stated that an analysis of 4.27 lakh emails showed that the accused were “in direct touch with each other” and were “discussing how to create a new map of India without Kashmir and to show Arunachal Pradesh as disputed area” and to this end, they had received “more than Rs 115 crore” in the “guise of foreign funds”.

While both Purkayastha and Chakraborty have been in judicial custody since November, the latter has become an approver in the case.