NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty were sent to seven days of police remand, officials said on Wednesday.
The duo was arrested in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA. There were allegations that NewsClick received money for pro-China propaganda. Both were produced before a court which remanded them in police custody, officials added.
The arrest was followed by police raids on 30 locations linked to NewsClick. Several journalists were questioned in connection with the case and arrested Purkayastha and Chakravarty, they said. After being questioned for over six hours, all journalists were allowed to go.
Police actions in money laundering case
The NewsClick’s office in Delhi was sealed by the police on Tuesday. 46 “suspects” were questioned and digital devices, including laptops and mobile phones, and documents were taken away for examination, they added.
Earlier, the police had prepared a list of 25 questions on various issues which included northeast Delhi riots, details of foreign travels, and farmers’ agitation.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s official residence in Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla lane was one of the sites raided by police to question his staffer whose son works with NewsClick.
“They came without any information or notice. Initially, they said they had come to inquire about some bank loan. Finally, when they came inside, they said it is in connection with NewsClick,” Yechury said.
He said the police officials sat for around two hours at his residence and asked a set of questions.
When they could not find anything, they took laptop and phone of his staff’s son, the CPI-M leader said.
Recently, NewsClick was in the news for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, citing an investigation by The New York Times, had recently claimed that NewsClick’s money trail revealed an “anti-India agenda”.
I.N.D.I.A bloc supports NewsClick
Opposition’s I.N.D.I.A bloc came forward in solidarity with NewsClick. In a statement, the alliance strongly condemned the police action, terming it a fresh attack on the media.
‘Now targeting NewsClick with raids on journalists and technicians. Such coercive authoritarian attacks are directed only against those who dare to speak truth to power while those inciting hatred and violence are patronized,” the statement read.
(With PTI inputs)