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Court also expressed its surprise over Purkayastha's remand order being delivered before his lawyer could be notified
Yesterday, a division bench of the Supreme Court questioned the Delhi Police Special Cell's conduct of arresting NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in 'hot haste'.
Court asked as to why Purkayastha was produced before the magistrate without informing his lawyer before doing so.
"Why didn’t you inform his lawyer in advance? You arrested him the previous day in the evening and you produce him at 6 am...you could’ve produced him at 10 am. Principles of natural justice are to be followed...", asked a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Purkayastha, has submitted before court yesterday that his client was arrested 'illegally' and he was not provided with 'grounds of arrest'.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju counter argued that Purkayastha’s legal team was aware that he was to be produced in 24 hours.
Top Court has reserved its judgment in the plea by NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha challenging the Delhi High Court's dismissal of his plea against arrests made in a UAPA case.
A single judge bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela of the Delhi High Court on Friday, October 13, had "dismissed" the pleas filed challenging the arrest of Purkayastha and Chakraborty.
As far as the arrest was considered, SGI Mehta had contended before the High Court that a huge sum of Rs. 75 crore came from a person in China, and the purpose was to ensure that the stability and integrity of the country were compromised.
“One of the most serious allegations is that they prepare a map with the northern borders of India, showing Arunachal Pradesh & J&K as not parts of India”, he had added.
Allegations in Delhi Police FIR
As per the FIR filed by the Delhi Police, Prabir Purkayastha conspired with a group namely People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during 2019 General Elections.
"Big Chinese Telecom companies like Xiaomi, Vivo, etc. incorporated thousands of shell companies in India in violation of PMLA/FEMA for illegally infusing foreign funds in India to further anti-India conspiracy", the FIR stated.
As per the FIR, Purkayastha along with Neville Roy Singham, Geeta Hariharan, and Gautam Bhatia (key person) conspired to create a Legal Community Network in India to campaign for and defend legal cases against these Chinese Telecom Companies.
Case Title: Prabir Purkayastha vs. State of NCT Delhi
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