Delhi HC issues notice to Newsclick, its director on ED plea seeking vacation of order granting ‘interim protection’

New Delhi [India]: The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited, which owns the news portal NewsClick, and its company director Prabir Purkayastha on Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea seeking direction to vacate its interim order asking the agency to not take any coercive action against them.

The ED in its fresh application stated that this is a case of grave criminal conspiracy for paid news. Noting the submission, the bench of Justice Saurabh Benrajee sought a reponse from the news portal and its director Purkayastha, and listed the matter for hearing in September.

Court further noted that Prima facie, the ED’s Counsel Zoheb Hossain’s contention has merit and requires deliberation.

The Delhi High Court on June 21, 2021, had directed the ED not to take coercive action against the news portal and on July 29, 2021, directed the ED not to take any coercive action against Newsclick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha in connection with a money laundering case subject to his joining the investigation.

The ED plea stated that in light of further investigation in the matter, additional material has been revealed which discloses the commission of the offence of money laundering as, well as a commission of a scheduled offence which has been intimated to the predicate agency as well, by way of an appropriate communication u/s 66(2) of the PMLA as well.

The relevant facts will be produced in a sealed cover before this Hon’ble Court during the course of the hearing as it is a subject matter of ongoing investigation, stated the ED in its plea.

In light of the facts, the present application is being filed bona fide and in the interest of justice, seeking vacation of the interim orders dated 21.06.2021 and 29.07.2021, the ED stated.

The ED in February 2021 had raided the premises of NewsClick and the residences of its editors in February in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and conducted search and seizure operations. The ED case related to alleged foreign funding is based on an FIR registered by Delhi Police’s Economic Offence Wing.

Recently, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur sharpened his attack against the alleged Chinese funding to the Congress and Indian news portal NewsClick and targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“All I would like to say Congress ka haath ‘NewsClick’ ke saath, ‘NewsClick’ ke upar China ka haath. Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the nation and say how did Rajiv Gandhi Foundation take money from China and where did it use this,” Thakur told reporters before heading to the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting this morning.

The Union Minister said that the Congress leader should apologise to the country in Parliament that China funds NewsClick and explain why his party supported it.

“He should tell the country who are the people who provided the funding and what was the compulsion that Congress was seen standing with ‘NewsClick’, Thakur said.

The Union Minister citing a report in the New York Times in a press conference charged that China, the NewsClick website and the Congress party were linked to an “anti-India umbilical cord”.