NEW DELHI: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Thursday sent NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and its HR department head Amit Chakraborty to judicial custody till December 1 in relation to a case registered under the anti-terror law UAPA which is allegedly connected to the "spreading" of pro-China propaganda by them.
At the end of their earlier police custody, the duo was produced before Special Judge Hardeep Kaur.
On October 25, both Purkayastha and Chakraborty were sent for custodial interrogation by Delhi Police till November 2.
In the previous hearing, the court had granted the city police their remand for a second time on October 25 setting aside their counsel Arshdeep Singh Khurana's contention that no new ground for it was mentioned in the application.
The cops had submitted that the accused "need to be confronted" with protected witnesses and electronic material seized in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case.
The Delhi Police arrested Purkayastha and Chakraborty on October 3 and remanded them to seven days of police custody on October 4. Later, they were sent to judicial custody on October 10 for ten days which was extended to five more days and then to police custody for nine days.
In the previous hearing, Khurana had vehemently opposed the Delhi Police's charges, asking how his client as a journalist doing a critical or impartial act of journalism about the government became any of the unlawful activities.
APP had also argued that the case was at a stage when evidence was still being collected, and the prosecution had sought judicial custody for the accused in all ''fairness''. Chakraborty's counsel submitted that his client is only an HR head and not involved in the publication of any news on the website.
The counsel argued that all the journalistic works of his client are in the public domain. He submitted that there is no allegation that they "used bombs, dynamite or any other explosive substance," as there is a requirement of a 'terrorist act' under 16, 17 and 18 of the UAPA act.
Khurana also argued that not a penny has come from China as funds as the police claimed while terming the FIR as "absurd."
''There is no such allegation that there is a map of India, published by NewsClick, that shows India without Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh,'' he said.
On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava opposed the argument saying the accused persons were not merely criticising the government but propagating the propaganda of a country that is inimical to us.
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