New Delhi: The Delhi police told a local court on Tuesday (April 16) that it has received sanction to prosecute NewsClick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
It said it had filed applications for sanction as part of a supplementary chargesheet in the case against Purkayastha and NewsClick, the Press Trust of India reported.
In its FIR, the Delhi police says that NewsClick received funding from China to criticise Indian government policies as part of a “conspiracy to disrupt [the] sovereignty of India and to cause disaffection against India”.
It also alleges that “secret inputs” revealed Purkayastha and a US-based businessman named Neville Roy Singham intended to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as “not part of India … [thus] undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India”.
NewsClick denies the charges.
The Delhi police filed its first chargesheet against Purkayastha and NewsClick in the case last month.
Additional sessions court judge Hardeep Kaur posted the matter for further hearing on April 30, PTI reported.
Employees of and contributors to NewsClick had their devices seized by a special unit of the Delhi police in October.
Purkayastha is in judicial custody in the case. So is Amit Chakravarty, the portal’s HR head – but he became an approver or government witness in the case earlier this year and was also pardoned.
First enacted in 1967, the UAPA law has acquired more teeth through recent amendments made in 2008 and 2012 by Congress governments and subsequently by the Narendra Modi government.
The provisions of the law make it virtually impossible for those booked under it to secure bail.
There have been allegations against successive governments, including the incumbent Modi government, of misusing the law as a tool to silence critics.
