Delhi HC issues notice to Newsclick editor-in-chief on plea seeking vacation of order granting ‘interim protection’

New Delhi [India], August 22 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to news portal NewsClick’s Editor in Chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea filed by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EoW), seeking direction to vacate its interim order asking the probe agency not to take any coercive action against the news site. 

The high court, on July 7, 2021, passed an order directing that Prabir Purkayastha shall not be arrested, adding, however, that he will have to cooperate with the investigation as and when required by the investigating officer.

The bench of Justice Saurabh Benrajee on Tuesday sought a response from Purkayastha in the matter.

According to the EOW FIR, a case was registered under IPC sections 406, 420 and 120-B and an investigation was launched. During the probe, the sleuths gathered evidence indicating criminal acts.

The accused persons, in conspiracy with their accomplices based abroad, devised a deceitful scheme to obtain and receive funds for undertaking activities as per instructions received from their foreign-based benefactors, by disguising the funds received as Foreign Direct Investment.

The accused persons, in furtherance of their scheme, converted their entity into a private limited company and got their valuation inflated through manipulation of the valuation criteria and process, so as to use the inflated valuation to get foreign investment purportedly in lieu of dilution of their shareholding in favour of the foreign investors, stated the EOW.

After seeking protection from arrest the petitioner Prabir Purkayastha joined the investigation and he merely provided the balance sheets of PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd. for the financial year 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020 but failed to provide closures of the balance sheets to check their source of revenue, expenditures, end use of funds FDI, and fund/revenue from foreign entities stated EOW.

The petitioner or accused also failed to provide information on what kind of export services were provided by their company PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd. to the foreign entities against the fee/remittances paid by them, stated EOW.

Recently, the ED also moved Delhi High Court against Newsclick and its editor-in-chief through a fresh application stating that it was a case of grave criminal conspiracy for paid news.

The high court, on June 21, 2021, had directed the ED not to take coercive action against the news portal and on July 29, 2021, directed the agency not to take any coercive action against the portal’s founder Purkayastha in connection with a money laundering case subject to his joining the investigation.

The ED plea stated that in light of further investigation in the matter, additional material has been revealed which discloses the commission of the offence of money laundering as well as the commission of a scheduled offence, which has been intimated to the predicate agency as well, by way of an appropriate communication u/s 66(2) of the PMLA.

“In light of the facts, the present application is being filed bona fide and in the interest of justice, seeking vacation of the interim orders dated June 21, 2021 and July 29, 2021,” the ED said in its plea. 

The agency, in February 2021, raided the premises of NewsClick and the residences of its editors in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and conducted search and seizure operations. Its case related to alleged foreign funding is based on an FIR registered by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing.

Earlier this month, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur hit out at the Congress and NewsClick over their alleged Chinese funding.