New Delhi: The Delhi Police's accusations that the news website NewsClick and its founder-editor, Prabir Purkayastha, were funding terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba and inciting violence in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests were dismissed as "absurd" and "baseless" on Wednesday.
According to The Indian Express, the charges were outlined in the police chargesheet that was submitted to a Delhi court in accordance with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The court listed the case for May 31 after taking cognisance of the chargesheet a day earlier, Scroll.in reported.
The paper also indicates that NewsClick was involved in giving money to protestors during the 2020 and 2021 farmers’ agitation near the national capital’s borders.
The Delhi Police had on October 3 raided numerous journalists working with NewsClick and arrested Purkayastha and Amit Chakraborty, NewsClick’s head of human resources. Chakraborty was granted permission by a Delhi court in January to take on the role of approver, or government witness, in the case.
The chargesheet cites an anonymous witness who told the Delhi Police that “during the CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] protest, Purkayastha used to send the employees to take part and incite the Muslim community to do violent acts and rioting”, The Indian Express reported.
“He [Purkayastha] also used to give cash to employees to distribute among rioters,” the witness said.
Purkayastha and NewsClick’s parent company, PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd., had been named as accused parties that allegedly get funds through Chinese entities “with the intention of undermining India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
The same anonymous witness, the Delhi Police claim, revealed that “Prabir, Chakraborty and other members [of NewsClick] had extreme Marxist and Maoist ideologies…I came to know that these people were being funded by the Chinese Communist Party”.
Another unidentified witness, said that they had heard Purkayastha saying that “omitting Kashmir from the map of India could help incite Kashmiri youths”.
According to reports, the witness claimed that the NewsClick editor was associated with multiple militant outfits.
A third unnamed witness, claimed that the money received by NewsClick had been used to fund the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, the farmers’ agitation and support Kashmiri separatists against the abrogation of Article 370.
NewsClick claimed that the chargesheet had been selectively leaked “to prejudice public opinion and pending judicial proceedings”.
The news website added: “Prabir’s long-term association with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — he has been a member for over 50 years — means he would never support, financially or otherwise, either ‘Maoists’, Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other group or individual with any violent and/or illegal plans.”
“All the allegations levelled against us are concocted and baseless,” NewsClick said, stating that it would contest the allegations in court.