A Delhi court on January 9 allowed the Human Resources (HR) head of NewsClick, Amit Chakraborty, to turn an approver in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case against him and the founder of the news portal, Prabir Purkayastha, over allegations that their organisation received money to spread pro-China propaganda.
Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts also granted pardon to Mr. Chakraborty as he had moved an application in court last month, seeking permission to turn approver in the case. In his application, he had maintained that he was in possession of “material information” about the case which he was willing to disclose to the Delhi Police.
Also Read | Judicial interventions in ongoing cases against NewsClick: A timeline of events
The development came days after the court granted the Delhi Police a 60-day extension of judicial custody to complete its investigation into the case against the two.
The matter pertains to an FIR registered by the Delhi Police against the news portal, under Sections 13, 16, 17, 18 and 22 of the anti-terror UAPA, pertaining to unlawful activities for raising of funds for a terrorist act. They were also booked for threatening witness under Sections 153 A, and under 120 B of the IPC (promoting religious enmity between groups on grounds of religion and criminal conspiracy respectively).
Also Read | Undeclared Emergency: On the arrests and actions in Newsclick case
The FIR, lodged in August this year, was registered days after The New York Times published a report on August 8 that the portal received money from American businessman Neville Roy Singham to spread Chinese propaganda.
As reported by The Hindu, the journalists and other staff members of NewsClick were questioned about Delhi communal riots and the CAA agitation of 2019-20, the farmers’ protest of 2020-2021, their association with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and if they used encrypted messaging applications such as Signal on their phones or wrote anything about Sikh separatism issue.
