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Puryakastha and Chakravarty were arrested on October 3 following a series of raids and were initially remanded in police custody for seven days
A Delhi Court on Monday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakroborty to judicial custody for ten days. Both were arrested in a case lodged under the UAPA following allegations about the news portal having received money for pro-China propaganda.
The Delhi Police had sought 10 days Judicial custody of Purkayastha and Chakroborty. The two accused were produced before the court today, on expiry of their 7 days police custody.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Court passed the order.
During the hearing, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana appeared for Purkayastha and Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava appeared for the State.
Singh on behalf of Purkayastha, argued that there was no prima facie case made out against him under anti-terror law UAPA. Referring to Section 16 of UAPA, he contended, "So far as Sections 16, 17 and 18 of UAPA are concerned, there is a requirement of a 'terrorist act', and a bare reading of FIR shows that the allegations are not made out against me".
"Today, if anyone is critical of the policies of the government, can that person be accused of committing any of these offences. Article 19 gives me the right. UAPA is not a restriction on Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution.You can't be imposing these draconian laws on journalists. The allegation is that I reported on Covid and farmers protest and therefore created disaffection. Is that terrorism?" he contended.
"All money in my company has come through banking channels, duly communicated to the government", he submitted on behalf of the accused persons.
He also contended that Purkayastha is a journalist of repute. " He is an independent voice of the country. He is renowned all over the world, he is a scientist," Singh said.
He further argued, "The allegation is that I am associated with certain persons. An association I had with Gautam Navlakha who is facing UAPA charges. Can mere association become a crime? He is a fellow journalist. I have known him since 1991. Now suddenly you say because of this association you are also involved in terrorism".
"I reported on the farmers agitation. I have not made any contributions to it. They are saying funds came from China. Not a penny has come from China. They say that I was involved in preparing legal defence for VIVO and Xiaomi. Legal defence is a fundamental right. If that becomes an offence then every lawyer will become a terrorist", he added.
Additionally, the counsel for Chakravarty argued he was not a journalist nor had he received any payment.
On the other hand, the APP contended, "We are the stage of collecting evidence. See our fairness, we've said we don't need police remand as of now and will ask later if we need it".
He further submitted, "Our case is that every judgment is passed on different facts. It's not the case of the first remand. At the time of passing order in the first remand, we have shown how offences are made out. We had informed this court that ED has also registered the case and EoW as well and there was no concealment".
He alleged, "Your purpose was not criticising but to propagate the propaganda of a country that is inimical to us".
Purkayastha and Chakravarty were arrested on October 3 following a series of raids and were initially remanded in police custody for seven days after they were produced at the judge’s residence, on Tuesday night.
The raids were conducted in the wake of allegations made in a New York Times article that NewsClick was being paid to boost Chinese propaganda.
According to reports, the Delhi Police on Tuesday searched more than 30 locations, questioned several journalists in connection with the case, and arrested Purkayastha and Chakravarty. Police sealed NewsClick's office in Delhi.
It is also stated that 46 'suspects' were questioned and digital devices, including laptops and mobile phones, and documents were taken away for examination. Among those questioned were journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Sohail Hashmi, satirist Sanjay Rajoura and D Raghunandan of the Centre for Technology & Development. After being questioned for over six hours, they were allowed to go.
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