NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday alleged that the arrested NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha attempted to peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were disputed territories.
“Secret inputs revealed that Prabir Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham and some other Chinese employees of Neville Roy Singham-owned Shanghai-based company by the name of StarStream exchanged emails which expose their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India,” the Delhi Police said in its remand application submitted before a court.
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police had on Tuesday arrested Prabir Purkayastha, the founder of the website, and Amit Chakravarty, its HR head in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
While demanding a 15-day police custody remand, the Delhi Police said that the attempts of the accused 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”.
According to the police, the analysis of the e-mails showed that Neville Roy Singham, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakraborty were in direct touch with each other wherein they were found to be discussing how to create a map of India without Kashmir and to show Arunachal Pradesh as disputed area.“To achieve the above objective the accused persons in the guise of foreign funds received more than Rs. 115 crore,” the police said.
It was further alleged by the police that the accused had also conspired to disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of a community in India and abet damage and destruction of property by protraction of farmers’ protest through such illegal foreign funding.
"A false narrative was propagated to discredit the efforts of the Indian Govt. to contain the Covid-19 Pandemic. It was learnt that Prabir Purkayastha conspired with a group namely People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 General Elections," the application read.
Letter to CJI
“Today, a large section of journalists finds itself working under the threat of reprisal. It is imperative that the judiciary confronts power with a fundamental truth that there is a Constitution to which we are all answerable,” read a letter written by 18 press bodies to the CJI on Wednesday.
NYT report
The New York Times in a recent report entitled ‘A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul’ claimed that NewsClick was part of a global network funded by American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, allegedly linked with Chinese government media.