The Delhi Police has accused NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha -- arrested in a case filed under anti-terror law UAPA following charges that the portal received money to spread pro-China propaganda -- saying that the news portal pushed a "global agenda" to show that Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir are not part of India, a report said.
In the remand application for his arrest which was accessed by India Today, the Delhi Police alleged that they have email trails between Prabir Purkayastha and American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham discussing how to create a map of India where Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh would be shown as "disputed territories".
Prabir Purkayastha and the human resources department head at NewsClick, Amit Chakravarty, were arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Tuesday after the premises of several journalists and employees linked with the news portal were raided.
The police said that Purkayastha and Chakravarty received foreign funds amounting to more than Rs 115 crore to create the said map. It was also learnt that the portal has received foreign funds amounting to crores since 2018 through "illegal means". The police said the funds were "fraudulently infused" by Neville Roy Singham through a complex web of several entities.
It was also learnt that Gautam Navlakha, a shareholder in NewsClick, was involved in anti-India and unlawful activities, such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having an anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai, an agent of Pakistani spy agency ISI, the Delhi Police alleged.
It has also been learnt that foreign funds were siphoned off by Purkayastha and his associates, police said.
"The accused persons have also conspired to disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of community in India and abet damage and destruction of property by protraction of farmers' protest through such illegal foreign funding," the application said.
Further, Prabir Purkayastha engaged in a conspiracy to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A false narrative was propagated to discredit the Indian government's efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, police said in the application.
These "false narratives" were peddled through the 'People’s Dispatch Portal' which is owned and maintained by NewsClick using the "illegally routed" foreign funds, it added.
The Delhi Police had applied for 15 days' police remand for both Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty and got their custody for seven days.
Police have sealed NewsClick's office in Delhi. Reportedly, 46 suspects were questioned and digital devices, including laptops and mobile phones, besides documents, taken away for examination.
Meanwhile, prominent journalists' bodies, including the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), PCI and Digipub News India Foundation, have sought the intervention of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud in the matter.
A letter addressed to CJI Chandrachud was signed by organisations, such as the Digipub News India Foundation, IWPC and PCI, among others.
As per PTI, the journalist bodies said a large number of scribes in the country find themselves working under the threat of reprisal.
"And it is imperative that the judiciary confronts power with the fundamental truth that there is a Constitution to which all of us are answerable," they said.
(With inputs from Sreya Chatterjee)
Also Read: 'Can't comment on NewsClick's China link, strongly support media's role in free democracy': US