NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has accused NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha and others of being involved in unlawful activities to undermine India's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. These include prolonging the farmers' protest through illegal funding and being involved in a 'larger conspiracy' of illegally infusing foreign funds in India through Chinese telecom companies.
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police had on August 17 registered an FIR, now accessed by The New Indian Express, under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code against NewsClick journalists for allegedly receiving money to spread pro-China propaganda and being involved in activities that were against the sovereignty of the country.
In the FIR, the cops alleged that since April 2018, fraudulent funds to the tune of crores of rupees were received by NewsClick through illegal means that were infused by Neville Roy Singham, a resident of Shanghai, and an active member of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China.
The FIR also mentioned the name of Gautam Navlakha, who the police stated has been a shareholder in NewsClick since 2018. As per the cops, Navlakha remained involved in anti-Indian and unlawful activities such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having an anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai, who is an agent of Pakistan's ISI.
According to the FIR, Navlakha was associated with Purkayastha since 1991 when they incorporated a company through which Purkayastha illegally siphoned off foreign funds.
"Secret inputs also revealed that Prabir Purkayastha and Neville Roy Singham and some other Chinese employees who owned a Shanghai based company by the name of Star Stream have exchanged emails which expose their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India," the FIR read.
The police, in the FIR, also alleged that Purkayastha, Singham and others actively propagated false narratives to discredit the efforts of the Indian government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Moreover, they have acted against the national interest by promoting a misleading and false narrative about the domestic pharmaceutical industry and the policies and development initiatives of the democratically elected Indian government in cohort with anti-national forces,” the FIR stated.
According to the FIR, Purkayastha conspired with the People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general elections.
"....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.
It was also alleged that big Chinese telecom companies like Xiaomi and Vivo incorporated thousands of shell firms in India in violation of PMLA/FEMA for illegally infusing foreign funds.
“Further Prabir Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham, Geeta Hariharan, Gautam Bhatia (key person) conspired to create a 'Legal Community Network' in India to campaign for and put up spirited defence of legal cases against aforementioned Chinese telecom companies in return for benefits by these companies,” says the FIR in possession with The New Indian Express.