New Delhi: NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and its HR head Amit Chakravarty on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s refusal to interfere with their arrest and police remand in a case lodged under the anti-terror law UAPA, PTI reported.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for Purkayastha and Chakravarty, that the matter needed urgent hearing and asked him to circulate the case papers.
“This is the NewsClick matter. The journalists are in police custody. Here one of the accused is a 75-year old man,” Sibal said, as per PTI. The CJI said he will take a call on the listing.
The Delhi High Court bench rejected the plea against the arrest and subsequent police detention of Purkayastha and Chakravarty on October 13, thereby dismissing their appeal. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police had arrested both individuals on October 3.
Following their arrest, they approached the high court to contest the arrest and the seven-day police custody, requesting immediate release as an interim measure.
On October 10, the trial court ordered their detention for 10 days under judicial custody.
A case has been filed against the pair under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly accepting money to propagate pro-China messages.
As per the First Information Report (FIR), a substantial sum of money was purportedly funneled from China to the news portal in question with the aim to “undermine India’s sovereignty” and incite disloyalty against the nation.
The FIR also claims that Purkayastha colluded with a group known as People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to disrupt the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
