NewsClick acted at China’s behest, says chargesheet

Tribune News Service

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, May 3

The Delhi Police have filed a chargesheet against NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the portal’s human resources head Amit Chakraborty under the anti-terror law UAPA, accusing them of acting at the behest of the “Chinese State”, their alleged “ultimate paymaster”.

Filed in Delhi’s Patiala House Courts this week, the chargesheet spans nearly 8,000 pages. The case is set for hearing on May 31 with Chakraborty having turned an approver in the case.

Booked under UAPA

• The chargesheet alleged NewsClick tampered with maps of Kashmir, Arunachal and Aksai Chin to serve a certain narrative
• The Delhi Police alleged that NewsClick received Rs 115 crore in foreign funds
• Funds from China “used to stoke and sustain the 2020 Delhi riots and the farmers’ protest”

The chargesheet primarily relied on email exchanges between Purkayastha, US millionaire Neville Roy Singham and others. The police claimed that these exchanges revealed a conspiracy to “forcibly replace Indian democracy with the party-state system like the one in present-day China”.

Purkayastha was accused of infusing funds from China into India to stoke and sustain the 2020 Delhi riots and the farmers’ protest. “To achieve the above objectives of the then crystallising conspiracy, Singham came to India on May 2, 2017. In furtherance of the common conspiracy, he met Purkayastha and others and discussed further course of action, primarily by way of infusing funds by way of creating off-shore and dependent on-shore companies,” the chargesheet stated.

BJP leader Amit Malviya, in a post on X, said, “Clearly, a large amount of funds to the news portal NewsClick came from China to disrupt the sovereignty of India and cause disaffection against the country. Now, identify all those who spoke for the news portal and tried to hide their malafide operation behind the garb of press freedom. They are as guilty or worse.” The police also accused them of supporting and funding Pakistan-sponsored Kashmiri terrorist groups, mainland Maoist left-wing extremists and anti-state movements such as CAA-NRC protests.

Purkayastha directed Rs 36 lakh to be given to a person who further transferred it to Sharjeel Imam for inciting the Delhi riots of 2020, the police alleged. However, NewsClick has denied these allegations, asserting that Purkayastha had no association with any terror outfit and had a long-standing affiliation with the CPM. The investigations by the Delhi Police were aimed at stifling independent journalism, it alleged. After a New York Times report alleged that NewsClick received funds from Singham to push Chinese propaganda, the Delhi Police filed an FIR on August 17, 2023. Purkayastha and Chakraborty were subsequently arrested on October 3.

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