New Delhi: In the “first” manifestations of the “conspiracy” in email trails between Shanghai-based American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham and NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha, it has been found that “special emphasis” was laid on “an alternative vision”, “allying with separatists” and “creating a media unit”, according to the Delhi Police chargesheet in the Newsclick case.
These three findings are “indicatives” of a deeper plot meant at “propagating information warfare” with the intention of subverting a nation’s psyche, it adds.
The names of civil right activists Harsh Mander, Gautam Navlakha and Teesta Setalvad as well as those of members of the Chinese Communist Party, the Students’ Federation of India and a shareholder of NewsClick are mentioned in the document.
Both Navlakha and Purkayastha are accused of funding Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, Left-Wing Extremists (LWE) and distributing cash among “rioters” during the CAA-NRC protests.
The chargesheet accuses Purkayastha and “his reporters/employees” of going to “great lengths” to paint the CAA as a discriminatory law that targeted Muslims. Employees of NewsClick participated in the ‘Chakka jaam’ and were members of the ‘Delhi Protest Solidarity Group (DPSG)’, it alleged.
While the mail trails and financial transactions of NewsClick are listed as evidence, the allegations of “terror fundings” are largely based on the statements of protected witnesses.
The mail trails, according to the chargesheet filed in April, expose a “sinister plot” to spread “false narratives”.
The chargesheet also accuses Neville Roy, NewsClick and Purkayashta of peddling pro-China narrative during COVID-19 and also for “inciting” the farmer’s protest.
NewsClick has refuted the allegations as completely baseless.
“The allegations against NewsClick and Prabir Purkyastha are completely baseless. NewsClick and Prabir have not been involved in any terrorist act. Nor is there any evidence for the same. Prabir does not have links to any terrorist group,” it said in a statement Wednesday.
It questioned the timing of media reports in the case and slammed the chargesheet as “nothing but a set of opinions of the investigating officer parading as ‘allegations’.”
The chargesheet, meanwhile, mentions “incriminating literature” found during a raid on 10 December last year.
A poster showing five persons with the message — ‘Long Live The Invincible Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought’ — in Chinese, books including ‘Structures of Violence‘, Sahba Husain’s ‘Love, Loss, and Longing in Kashmir’, Navlakha’s ‘War and Politics’ are listed as “incriminating literature”.
Further, booklets of International Peoples’ Assembly (a network of people’s organisations, social movements, political parties and trade unions) and documents establishing conspiracy to propagate ‘Leftist ideology’ among IT employees are mentioned as well.
The person — in whose house the raid was conducted — later became a witness in the case.
“In pursuance and furtherance of the common conspiracy, Neville Roy Singham visited India in 2017 and held discussions with Prabir and others of the ways and means to be adopted for carrying the agenda forward. Evidence of protected witnesses bring to light the fact that the fountain-head of the funds that were being routed through the web of companies established by Neville were originating from the ruling dispensation of a neighbouring country which has long been engaged in propagating information warfare as a tool of its State policy,” the chargesheet reads.
As many as 207 witnesses, eight of whom are “protected”, are mentioned in the Delhi Police’s chargesheet.
In its 8,000-plus page chargesheet, the Delhi Police Special Cell alleges that “over-valuation/inflation of the share-prices of PPK NewsClick was carried out so that it could receive substantial amounts as ‘subscription money’.”
Police had initially arrested both the NewsClick founder and HR head Amit Chakraborty. Chakraborty had later turned an approver in the case.
Also Read: ‘Gross FCRA violations, unexplained export remittance’ — what CBI says in FIR against NewsClick
Maoists & ‘Kashmir cell’
According to Chakraborty’s statements, the chargesheet says, Purkayastha received funds “illegally” from Neville Roy’s companies out of which Rs 36 lakh was transferred to Chakraborty’s brother Anup. Purkayastha intended to take back the money in cash from him, it added.
This money, it says, was allegedly given then by the NewsClick founder to Anand Mangnale (author with NewsClick), “with the direction to give it further to Sharjeel Imam for inciting the Delhi Riots of 2020”. Mangnale was allegedly instructed by Prabir to use this money for the Delhi riots, the Delhi Police alleges.
“Some amounts from the funds was also given to SFI activists Anusha Paul and Pawan Kulkarni to instigate protestors and create violence during CAA-NRC protests.”
As per Chakraborty’s statement, in the meantime, Neville Roy asked Purkayastha to start a “campaign” through articles so that “people avoid taking Indian vaccine and consequently many people would die and discontent against the government will grow and a situation of civil war might arise”. Further, funds were also used during the farmer’s agitation with the intention of blocking roads.
“Funds given by Neville Roy were also handed over to many Maoist activists of Garb Chiroli (read, Gadchiroli) to whom I can identify if shown to me. Prabir also formed a Kashmir Cell headed by Pratik Purkayastha (his son) to create revolt in Kashmir. Out of the illegal foreign funds, small amounts were also being given to anti-national elements after abrogation of Article. 370,” the chargesheet quotes Chakraborty as saying.
Further, according to Chakraborty, Purkayastha paid the salaries of Setalvad’s employees after her trust lost its FCRA licence.
“Teesta was funded with the directions that she would spend the money to spread communal agenda and disharmony in society through her NGO Sabrang, her husband and others. Payments were made to her husband Javed Anand, daughter Tamara, her son Jibran, and other staff members from NewsClick but they worked for Sabrang,” the statement reads.
Chakraborty’s statement mentions a member of the propaganda department of Chinese Communist Party, Vijay Prasad, who allegedly told them in a meeting in Spain that they will provide funds for “Chinese propaganda, instigate local public against the government of India for violence and disintegration of India”.
Prasad then allegedly directed Purkayashta to create distorted maps of India, it alleges.
The Delhi Police goes on to mention a NewsClick article with Neville Roy marked on mail that talks about attacks on minorities, and protests over the lynching of Akhlaq as a “manifestation” of the intention of “a divisive and confrontational approach”.
Mail trails between Neville Roy, Purkayastha and others over “maps and disputed borders” such as Kashmir, Israel, Palestine find place in the NewsClick chargesheet.
(Edited by Tony Rai)