NewsClick case: Delhi Police team goes to Mumbai to question activist Gautam Navlakha

In connection with an investigation into NewsClick’s purported foreign funding and anti-Indian activities, a Delhi Police team has travelled to Mumbai to speak with activist Gautam Navlakha, an official said on Saturday.

According to an official, Navlakha will be questioned at his Agroli home in Navi Mumbai. The team is headed by an officer at the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) level.

On December 19, Navlakha—who was under house arrest—was given bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

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The news portal NewsClick was the target of a formal complaint filed in August by the special cell under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The complaint claimed that substantial funds originated from China with the intention of “disrupting the sovereignty of India” and causing “disaffection against the country.”

On October 3, the investigating agency detained Amit Chakravarty, the head of the human resources department, and Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the news portal. They are being held by judges at the moment.

The FIR claimed that the Chinese foreign funds were allegedly distributed to activist Gautam Navlakha and associates of activists Teesta Seetalvad, her husband and Javed Anand, and journalists Urmilesh, Aratrika Halder, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Abhisar Sharma, and others.

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Navlakha has been associated with Purkhayastha since 1991 and is also a shareholder of PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited since 2018, according to the FIR.

It also alleged Purkayastha conspired with a group — People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) — to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

(Source: PTI)