Delhi Police Special Cell officials sealed the office of ‘Newsclick’ in Delhi. Delhi Police is conducting raids on various premises associated with Newsclick under UAPA and other sections.
न्यूजक्लिक का ऑफिस सील किया गया, सुबह से चल रही थी रेड
Delhi Police has sealed the office of news portal ‘Newsclick’ in connection with the investigation into a case registered under the anti-terrorism law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for taking money to carry propaganda in support of China. The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday searched 30 locations linked to the news portal and its journalists.
Police said no one has been arrested so far during the concentrated searches in Delhi-NCR. Founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was taken to the news portal’s South Delhi office, where a forensic team was present. Sources said the journalists who were interrogated included Urmilesh, Anindyo Chakraborty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta as well as historian Sohail Hashmi. Sources said the police asked him 25 questions related to various issues including his foreign travel, protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh as well as the farmers’ agitation.
‘Dump data’ of laptop and mobile phone seized
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also raided the company’s premises as part of its investigation into the sources of funding of ‘NewsClick’. The special cell is conducting raids on the basis of information received from the central agency. Officials said that the Special Cell has registered a new case under UAPA and started investigation. Officials aware of the development said that the police recovered ‘dump data’ (data transferred from a computer, laptop or mobile to another device) of laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of ‘Newsclick’.
A team of the Special Cell interrogated Abhisar Sharma at his house in Noida Extension, after which he took him away. The team reached the journalist’s house in the morning and confiscated his gadgets like mobile phone and laptop. Delhi Police sources said that the raid is going on. He said that this action is being taken on the basis of a case registered in August under UAPA and sections 153A (promoting enmity between two groups) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Before he was taken into custody, Abhisar Sharma wrote on the social media platform ‘X’, “Delhi Police reached my house. Took my laptop and phone.”
Investigation revealed ‘anti-India agenda’ – Anurag
In August, the Delhi High Court had sought the stand of NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the city police seeking quashing of the earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in a case of alleged illegal foreign funding. There was an appeal for cancellation. The website was recently in the news for allegedly receiving funds from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India. Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, citing the investigation by ‘The New York Times’, had recently claimed that the investigation into the money transactions of ‘NewsClick’ has revealed an ‘anti-India agenda’.
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