Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct 19: The Supreme Court took action by serving a notice to the Delhi police on Thursday in response to pleas filed by Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Newsclick, and Amit Chakraborty, the website’s head of human resources. These pleas challenge their arrests under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with allegations of receiving Chinese funding for the purpose of promoting content deemed as anti-national propaganda.
A bench consisting of Justices PK Mishra and BR Gavai scheduled a hearing for October 30 after asking Delhi Police to respond.
The Delhi High Court’s decision to affirm the trial court’s remand order placing Purkayastha and Chakraborty in police custody was challenged by the two parties in an appeal to the Supreme Court. Since then, they were placed in judicial detention on remand. They are currently under judicial custody since then.
On October 13, a bench in the Delhi High Court rejected the plea challenging the arrest and subsequent police custody of Purkayastha and Chakravarty in the case. Both individuals had been apprehended by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on October 3.
For allegedly receiving money to propagate pro-China propaganda, the two have a case filed against them under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The news portal allegedly received significant funding from China in order to “disrupt the sovereignty of India” and incite discontent with the nation, according to the FIR.
The allegation further stated that Purkayastha was involved in a conspiracy with the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to disrupt the electoral proceedings during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
