The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Delhi Police over the special leave petitions by NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakraborty against their arrest in a UAPA case, LiveLaw reported. The court will next hear the matter on October 30.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra had initially planned to hear the matter after three weeks, but it agreed to schedule the hearing on October 30 at the request of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, according to the report.
Last week, the CBI also lodged an FIR against NewsClick over allegations of foreign funding violations.
NewsClick has denied all the allegations against it and has termed the police action last week as an attempt to “stifle fearless voices”. It has repeatedly refused that it took funds or directions from Chinese entities.
Sixteen press groups earlier wrote to the Chief Justice of India, demanding that the “increasingly repressive use” of investigating agencies against the media be stopped.
Purkayastha and NewsClick’s HR head Amit Chakraborty were arrested on October 3.
The Enforcement Directorate had earlier attached the portal’s assets after initiating a probe into its funding. This was after The New York Times alleged the news site was among Chinese propaganda outlets funded by American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham.
In a four-page rebuttal, Singham this week called the New York Times article as “misleading”, and an “innuendo-laden hit piece”.
The Delhi Police also filed a UAPA case days after the NYT report. In the run up to the arrests, the Delhi police raided over 30 locations and questioned more than 35 journalists. Their electronic devices were also seized.
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