New Delhi: A Delhi court Tuesday allowed NewsClick human resource head Amit Chakraborty to turn approver in the case pertaining to alleged money received for pushing pro-China propaganda through the news portal.
The judge also pardoned Chakraborty after he moved the request to turn approver in the case against his former boss and NewsClick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha.
An approver is a person who is directly or indirectly involved or is privy to an offence. It can also be an accused who can later turn approver by siding with the prosecution, on conditions of providing information. This is done in return for a lesser sentence, or pardon.
Both Chakraborty and Purkayastha are in judicial custody.
Earlier, the Delhi Police Special Cell had sought a three-month extension for its probe in the NewsClick case. The court granted two months instead Tuesday.
In October, the Delhi Police had booked Chakraborty, Purkayastha, Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha and others under Sections of 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 13,16, 17, 18 and 22C of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Purkayastha and Chakraborty were arrested and more than 50 journalists, including freelancers and NewsClick staffers, both former and present, were questioned. Their electronic devices were seized by the Special Cell. Activist Navlakha was also questioned in December in connection with the case.
The Delhi Police has alleged that NewsClick received “illegal funds” from US-based millionaire Neville Roy Singham. According to a report by The New York Times in August last year, Singham was “at the centre” of a “global web of Chinese propaganda”.
The police claim that the media outlet used funds “illegally received from China” to set up a narrative “through its coverage about protests and violence across the country like the farmers’ agitation, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, and the Bhima Koregaon violence” and that these funds were used to “discredit” the government’s “handling of the Covid crisis”.
In a statement on 19 December, NewsClick said that it hasn’t been unable to make any bank payments since 18 December.
“This action, which has virtually frozen our accounts, appears to be a continuation of the administrative-legal siege of the news portal which began with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids in February 2021, followed by an IT department survey in September 2021, and the October 3, 2023 crackdown by the Delhi Police Special Cell. NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and administrative officer Amit Chakraborty, arrested on that day, continue to languish in jail,” the statement said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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