A Delhi Court has remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amir Chakraborty in police custody for nine days. The Court passed the order on Wednesday, October 25. The duo were arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on October 3 for allegedly getting funds from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham to spread ‘Chinese propaganda’.
A case was registered against the website on August 17 based on a New York Times article, invoking various sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to jeopardising stability, integrity, sovereignty, and national security. Following extensive raids in the NewsClick office, Prabir and Amit were arrested by Delhi police on October 3. The Delhi police named Neville as an accused in the FIR against NewsClick as well.
Read: NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha, HR head move SC challenging arrest under UAPA
Neville issued a statement on October 18 where he rejected all the allegations levelled against him and expressed disappointment with the NYT article. He said, “I also reject any innuendo that I violate any Indian or US law by working with banned organisations. There is just no proof of such accusations because they are untrue. Having run a multinational company (ThoughtWorks) for many years, I learned the vital importance of carefully following the laws of all the countries in which we conducted business.”
He added, “I was shocked to see the absurd attempt to connect me to the Chinese telecom companies, Xiaomi and Vivo, in the FIR. I have no knowledge of their activities in India. I have never had contact with, directly or indirectly received funding from, nor worked on behalf of these companies.” He also clarified that though he resides in Shanghai, he is a citizen of the United States of America.