NewsClick case: Delhi HC grants pre-arrest bail to Prabir Purkayastha

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to NewsClick's founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha in two cases, including the one lodged by Delhi Police concerning foreign funding.

Besides the foreign funding case, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna granted him the relief in a money laundering case of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The court pronounced the order on Purkayastha's pleas which were filed in 2021.

He was earlier arrested in another case lodged under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Later, the Supreme Court had on May 24, 2024, declared his arrest to be invalid in the eyes of law and order his release from custody.

The apex court said a copy of written grounds of arrest have to be furnished to the arrested person as a "matter of course and without exception at the earliest" and in this case, grounds of arrest in writing was not provided to Purkayastha or his counsel before passing of the remand order.

Purkayastha was arrested on October 3, 2023 by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in the UAPA case.

The high court also granted anticipatory bail to NewsClick director Pranjal Pandey in the case registered by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

In 2021, the high court granted interim protection from arrest to Purkayastha and Pandey in the cases.

A detailed order is awaited.

Purkayastha was represented through senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Dayan Krishnan and advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana in the matter.

The allegations in the FIR lodged by the Delhi Police are that the petitioner company PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd received foreign direct investment (FDI) to the tune of Rs 9.59 crores from one M/s Worldwide Media Holdings LLC USA during the financial year 2018-19.

It was alleged that the investment was made by greatly overvaluing the shares of the petitioner company to avoid the alleged cap of 26 per cent of FDI in a digital news website.

It was further alleged that over 45 per cent of this investment was diverted/ siphoned off for the payment of salary/ consultancy, rent and other expenses, which payments are alleged to have been made for ulterior motives. Therefore, it is alleged that the company has violated the FDI and other laws of the country and has caused a loss to the government exchequer.

The ED has taken cognisance of the Delhi Police FIR to initiate a money laundering probe in this instance and conducted searched on the premises of a digital news platform and several other places in connection with the money received from overseas. PTI