Read Time: 10 minutes

Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Monday 'reserved order' in pleas challenging the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR department head Amit Chakraborty in a case lodged under UAPA.

Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dayan Krishnan appeared for Purkayastha, and Solicitor General of India (SGI) Tushar Mehta appeared for the State.

During the hearing today, SGI Mehta submitted that there were mainly two issues— first the arrest of the petitioners and second their remand.

As far as the arrest was considered, SGI Mehta contended 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 added.

“He (the accused person) was informed about the grounds of arrest and produced before the Special Court. It's an admitted fact, that the grounds were not supplied”, he contended.

Coming to the question of remand, the SGI argued that there was an allegation against a judicial officer of tampering with evidence. “I don't intend to defend, but such allegations cannot be made orally and lightly...There has to be an affidavit”, he said.

Opposing the arrest, Sibal argued that till date the police had not given the accused persons the grounds of arrest and had just supplied the arrest memo.

He argued that they had only given reasons which were general, and there were no proper grounds. "Grounds of arrest have not been filed by the State. Not a single document shows that the petitioner siphoned money", he added.

Sibal further argued, "In the trial court, when the order was passed in the morning, surprisingly the legal aid counsel was there and the counsel for the state was there. However, they did not call me, despite the fact the earlier evening I appeared for the petitioner...If the counsel would have been present when the remand order was pronounced, it would have been argued that all the allegations were bogus and that not a penny had come from China".

"The grounds of arrest are to be given to the Magistrate. This is far more serious. To date we don't have grounds of arrest", Sibal contended.

Following that, Krishnan contended that Article 22 of the Indian Constitution which deals with the protection against arrest and detention in certain cases, and the CrPC provision which states that "no person who is arrested shall be detained in illegal custody" were both violated in this case. "I was neither given grounds of arrest nor was I allowed to have my counsel present", he added.

Referring to the Delhi High Court remand rules, the senior counsel argued, "Before remand, the accused must be engaged with a counsel…The order granting remand should be written by the Magistrate when the accused is present. The duty of the Magistrate is to satisfy himself whether the accused has any objection to the remand". "The opportunity to oppose the remand was not given to me", he said concluding his arguments.

After hearing the arguments at length, the bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela reserved the orders. 

On Friday last week, the judge, on perusal of the remand application had inquired, “Mr. Mehta, tell us. In the remand order, there appears to be something which is missing there because it's 6 AM and the counsel (of the accused) was not heard”.

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

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
NewsClick received foreign funds from "Nevile Roy Singham, a resident of Shanghai China and active member of Propaganda Department of Communist Party of China", the DelhiPolice's FIR read. 

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