Delhi Police alleges that NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha conspired to peddle the narrative that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories with the help of a Shanghai-based company
Our Bureau
New Delhi
In a major development, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, in its FIR against NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha, stated that People’s Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd. has been used for intentionally peddling false narratives through paid news in lieu of crores of rupees of illegally routed foreign funds as part of a conspiracy.
It is further learnt that foreign funds include those from big Chinese Telecom companies such as Xiaomi and Vivo, among others. “Foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, and security of India,” Delhi Police stated in the FIR.
Delhi Police through a remand application on Wednesday alleged that NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha conspired to peddle the narrative that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories with the help of a Shanghai-based company.
Delhi Police informed the court through the remand application that secret inputs revealed that Prabir Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham (said to be an active member of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China) and some other Chinese employees of Neville Roy Singham-owned Shanghai-based Company by the name of StarStream have exchanged emails which expose their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India.
The remand plea further stated that such attempts by these persons reveal their conspiracy to peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories.
“Their attempts to tinker with the northern borders of India and to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not parts of India in maps amount to an act intended towards undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India,” Delhi Police stated.
Meanwhile, Purkayastha on Friday moved the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of FIR registered against him and others. His plea also challenged a trial court order granting remand to him and HR Head Amit Chakravarty in the matter.
On Thursday, Patiala House Court of Delhi allowed a plea moved by Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty for the supply of a copy of FIR to them.
Since April 2018, such fraudulent funds in crores of rupees have been received by PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd through illegal means during a short span of five years from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA and others, the remand report stated.
But several media associations have written to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud seeking the court’s intervention to put an end to the alleged “repressive” use of investigating agencies “against the media” and demanding guidelines on police seizures of the electronic devices of journalists.
The letter was written by 16 press associations in the wake of a raid by Delhi police’s Special Cell into the residences of journalists, editors and writers associated with the news portal ‘Newsclick’.
“Our fear is that State actions against the media have been taken beyond measure, and should they be allowed to continue in the direction they are headed, it may be too late for corrective or remedial steps. It is, therefore, our collective view that the higher judiciary must now intervene to put an end to the increasingly repressive use of investigating agencies against the media,” the letter stated.
The associations said that as journalists and news professionals, we are always ready and willing to cooperate with any bona fide investigation.
“However, ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations surely cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy,” it added.
The letter has been sent by media associations such as Digipub News India Foundation, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Club of India, Foundation of Media Professionals, National Alliance of Journalists, Network of Women in Media, Chandigarh Press Club, Delhi Union of Journalists, Kerala Union of Working Journalists, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists, Free Speech Collective Mumbai, Mumbai Press Club, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, Press Association of India and Guwahati Press Club.
