NEW DELHI: The Special Cell of the Delhi Police has booked NewsClick journalists under sections 13, 16, 17, 18 and 22C of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sections 153A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
“The accused have conspired to commit unlawful activities and terrorist acts by aiding and abetting disruption of supplies and services essential for the life of the community and continued damage and destruction of property through illegal,” reads the FIR.
It listed several criminal activities that may come under the ambit of unlawful activities which include undermining India’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The FIR alleges that the founder and editor of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha and American Businessman Neville Roy Singham and others actively propagated a false narrative to discredit the efforts of the Indian government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Moreover, they have acted against national interest by promoting a false narrative about the domestic pharmaceutical industry and the policies and development initiatives of the democratically-elected Indian government in cohort with the anti-national forces,” the FIR reads.
As per section 15(1)(a)(iii) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the “disruption of any supplies or services” essential to the life of the community in India or in any foreign country is caused “by using bombs, dynamite or other explosive substances or inflammable substances or firearms or other lethal weapons or poisonous or noxious gases or other chemicals or by any other substances (whether biological radioactive, nuclear or otherwise) of a hazardous nature or by any other means”. The other sections of the UAPA i.e. 17 and 18, included in the FIR, were ‘punishment for raising funds for terrorist act’ and ‘punishment for conspiracy, etc’.
‘Used foreign funds’
The FIR alleges that Purkayastha conspired with a group called People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general election. “In furtherance of this conspiracy to disrupt the sovereignty of India and to cause disaffection against India, large amounts of funds were routed from China in the circuitous and camouflaged manner and paid news were intentionally peddled criticising domestic policies, development projects of India and promoting, projecting and defending policies and programmes of the Chinese government,” the FIR says.
As per the FIR, the People’s Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd., was used for intentionally peddling these false narratives through paid news in lieu of crores of rupees of illegally routed foreign funds as part of the conspiracy.
The police also alleged that Chinese telecom companies like Xiaomi and Vivo incorporated thousands of shell companies in India in violation of PMLA/FEMA for illegally infusing foreign funds in India to further of this conspiracy.
It was possibly for these allegations that section 17 of the UAPA, punishment for raising funds for terrorist act, was part of the FIR. However, no specific content from NewsClick promoting Chinese and policies was cited in the FIR.
‘Causing disaffection’
The FIR also used the phrase “cause disaffection against India” by peddling paid news that criticised domestic policies and promoted Chinese government programmes. Notably, a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the UAPA was filed before the Supreme Court in September last year and is still awaiting adjudication.
The petition, filed by the Foundation of Media Professionals, argues that UAPA’s provisions are “arbitrary and perverse, since they represent a condemnation of all democratic expression,” and that governments are abusing them “to target any and all kinds of dissent.”
Moreover, the word disaffection has not been explained in the UAP Act. Rather the term ‘unlawful activity’ is defined in the first chapter as any action taken by such individual or association that causes or is intended to cause ‘disaffection’ against India.
‘Criminal conspiracy’
NewsClick editor Purkayastha conspired with PADS to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general elections, the FIR alleged. “.... a large amount of funds were routed from China in circuitous and camouflaged manner and paid news were intentionally peddled criticising domestic policies, development projects of India and promoting, projecting and defending policies and programmes of the Chinese government,” an excerpt of the FIR read.
As per section 18 of the UAPA, the punishment for conspiracy is minimum five years and can be extended upto life imprisonment. Conspiring or attempting to commit, or advocating, ‘abetting’, advising the commission of, a terrorist act come under this section. In the accusation levelled by the police in the FIR, the word ‘abetting’ was mentioned with the phrase ‘disruption of supplies’.
‘Nexus between entities’
The police charged the accused with creating division among different group of people and also inciting disaffection among farmers towards the Indian government. The police alleged that a ‘mutually beneficial’ nexus was established between some Indian entities and inimical foreign establishments.
According to the police, the objective of the nexus was to promote, and support each other for the purpose of backing, supporting, and funding farmers’ agitation with the objective of causing a huge loss of several hundred crores to the Indian economy and creating internal law and order problems in India.
“By inciting disaffection among the people, especially the farmers towards a democratically elected government of India, they have been creating divisions and disharmony among different groups or classes of people as a part of a larger conspiracy having international ramifications,” the FIR alleged.
The police invoked IPC section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language, etc., and acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony. The police served a copy of the FIR to the portal on Friday last week. NewsClick has rejected the allegations as ‘untenable and bogus’, and said the proceedings are “nothing but a blatant attempt to muzzle the free and independent press in India”.