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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to hear during the day a plea against the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakravarty in a case lodged under anti-terror law UAPA.

The matter was mentioned for 'urgent hearing' by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula. 

“This is the Newsclick matter. Arrest has been made illegally and in violation of the Supreme Court decisions,” Sibal said as he urged the bench to list the matter for hearing today itself.

Senior Advocates Dayan Krishna and Siddharth Agarwal appearing for Newsclick HR head, Amit Chakravarty submitted, "Another petition has been moved by us". 

The court allowed listing of all the matter, today itself.

Purkayastha and Chakravarty were arrested on October 3 following a series of raids and were 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.

Notably, on October 4, the two had approached a Delhi Court seeking a copy of FIR. The Judge had issued notice to the Delhi Police on the website's founder an HR head's plea The court had also agreed to hand over a “copy of the remand application”, filed by Delhi police, to Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, the counsel for the accused.

On October 5, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Court allowed the applications moved by Purkayastha and Chakravarty and ordered supply of FIR to them. 

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.

Case Title: Prabir Purkayastha v. State NCT of Delhi & Amit Chakraborty v. State (NCT of Delhi)