On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court gave anticipatory bail to Prabir Purkayastha, founder of NewsClick, in a foreign funding case filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police department. The leading bench, which was headed by Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, provided such relief to the director of NewsClick, Pranjal Pandey, in the said case as well. The judgment in detail is being awaited; however, in the hearing, the court declared that there is bail.
The case of foreign funding goes back to August 2020 when the EOW registered a First Information Report (FIR) that accused breaching of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations. The accused were charged on sections 406 (crime of breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to this FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED ) too had filed the case against the portal grounds of overvaluation of the shares and misappropriation of funds.
The Delhi High Court earlier in July 2021 had already given interim protection against arrest to Prabir Purkayastha and other persons who were involved in the case. Nevertheless, it re-emerged due to the broader operations of the financial misconduct and multinational funding social connections of the news portal.
Individually, in 2023, another case was registered under the Prevention of Unlawful Activities (Unlawful Activities) (UAPA) against NewsClick, which stated that foreign funding destined to break the sovereignty of India amid the 2019 national election and influence it was forwarded to Delhi Police Special Cell through Chinese firms, including Xiaomi and Vivo. The FIR also argued that NewsClick had been working together with the organisation called People Alliance of Democracy and Secularism to spoil the polls.
It is important to note that the Supreme Court directed the release of Prabir in the UAPA case in May last year by saying that his arrest and remand were illegal. With constant investigations, the recent life-giving bail orders have become a substantial legal relief.
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