A Delhi Court on Wednesday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakroborty to police custody till November 2, 2023.
The duo were arrested in a case lodged under the UAPA following allegations about the news portal having received money for pro-China propaganda.
After the judicial custody, the two were produced before Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Court, who sent to them to custody of the Special Cell of Delhi Police.
The police sought nine-day custodial remand of both the accused.
On October 10, the police had requested the court to send the accused persons to jail and had submitted that the agency could ask for their further custodial interrogation later.
The police on Wednesday told the judge that it wanted to confront the accused with some protected witnesses and also some devices which were examined and the data that has been extracted.
Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, appearing for Purkayastha, opposed the police remand plea claiming that there was no new ground in the application.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Purkayastha and Chakravarty on October 3.
The Delhi High Court had on October 13, 2023 rejected the petitions filed by accused duo-- Purkayastha and Chakraborty -- challenging their arrest and remand in the UAPA case.
The FIR lodged on August 17, 2023 had named Purkayastha and activist Gautam Navalakha and Chinese resident Neville Roy Singham.
The police accused them of being involved in "serious offences” as a huge sum of money, about Rs 75 crore, were received from a person who is staying in China and “the purpose is to ensure that integrity and stability of the country is compromised”.
The investigators 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.
Raids were conducted at 88 locations in Delhi and seven in other states on October 3 on the suspects named in the FIR and those that surfaced in the analysis of data, police said.
Around 300 electronic gadgets were also seized from the offices of NewsClick and residences of the journalists.
After the raids, 46 individuals, including nine female journalists, were questioned by the Special Cell in Delhi and NCR.
![NewsClick received funds from Chinese firms to create false narratives: Delhi police FIR [Read Order]](/secure/uploads/2023/10/lj_9371_b4600c46-2a07-4866-b478-1c7683cd8363.jpg)
