The FIR that forms the basis of the police crackdown on news website NewsClick this week accuses the company of receiving funds illegally from a US-based firm linked to the Communist Party of China.
The FIR, filed by the special cell of Delhi police’s anti-terrorism unit on August 17, cites “secret inputs” that “…foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, and security of India”.
It adds that PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd — the company that owns NewsClick.in -- received such funds “through illegal means” from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, in the US, for five years from April 2018.
Scores of employees, former employees and associates of NewsClick as well as intellectuals with no known links to the website were raided by the special cell here and in Mumbai on October 3. Electronic devices, private papers and at least one passport were seized.
NewsClick’s 73-year-old editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, and HR head Amit Chakraborty — a disabled person — were arrested and sent to a week’s police remand. Delhi High Court has listed their relief pleas for Monday.
The court is also expected to hear, between Monday and Wednesday, pleas from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Delhi police seeking vacation of the interim protection orders on Purkayastha in previous but related cases.
The FIR names Purkayastha, activist Gautam Navlakha and Shanghai-based Lankan American investor Neville Roy Singham as the “accused” under Sections 13 (unlawful activities), 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy) and 22C (offences by companies) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They are also charged under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Journalists take part in a candle march against Police raid on news portal NewsClick, in Mumbai, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023 PTI picture
The FIR says that Worldwide Media Holdings (WMH) is incorporated by several companies including “Jason Pfetcher, a close associate” of Singham, and People Support Foundation — of which Singham’s wife Jodie Evans is a director.
It also alleges that Singham is “an active member of Propaganda department of Communist Party of China” — which is the country’s main ruling party.
It adds that Navlakha, a shareholder of PPK Newsclick Studio, “remained involved in anti-Indian and unlawful activities such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai who is an agent of ISI of Pakistan”.
Navlakha is under house arrest in Navi Mumbai in the Elgaar Parishad case.
Chakraborty too is named as a shareholder.
The FIR names several journalists and a few activists — including Mumbai-based Teesta Setalvad who too was raided — as recipients of these funds.
One of the journalists named in the FIR, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, told The Telegraph: “Many of the allegations in the FIR appear far-fetched and ludicrous. To say that somehow Chinese money was routed via the US to NewsClick to destabilise India seems absurd.
“I wonder how a small group of persons could ‘tinker’ with India’s boundaries, as has been claimed in the FIR. I don’t think the allegations will stand up to judicial scrutiny but time alone will tell what happens.”
He added: “I wonder why the Delhi police acted in the way it did one-and-a-half months after it filed this FIR. I reiterate that whatever money I received from NewsClick was put into my bank account after TDS, for which I had raised invoices as a consultant. Also, the Chinese companies named in it, such as Xiaomi, have contributed to PM Cares (Fund).
“The mention of the farmers’ movement, and so on, makes the FIR appear to be a document which is trying to further the agenda of the ruling dispensation.”
The FIR further cites secret inputs that claim that Purkayastha, Singham and employees of his Shanghai-based firm StarStream “have exchanged emails which expose their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not part of India…. Their attempts to tinker with the northern borders of India and to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not parts of India in maps amount to an act intended towards undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India.”
It adds: “The accused persons have also conspired to disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of community in India and abet damage and destruction of property by protraction of farmers’ protests through such illegal foreign funding.”
After more than 16 months of protests in 2020 and 2021, the Centre withdrew three farm laws that enhanced the role of corporate entities in the sector and, according to the protesting farmers, exposed them to possible exploitation.
Besides Purkayastha and Singham, the FIR alleges, “Vijay Parshad and others also actively propagated false narratives to discredit the efforts of Indian Govt. to contain Covid-19 Pandemic”.
It accuses them of violating the national interest through their narratives about the “domestic pharmaceutical industry and the policies and development initiatives of the democratically elected Indian government in cohorts with the Anti-National Forces”.
Neither the identity of “Parshad” and the “Anti-National Forces” nor the exact “narratives” that the accused had spread are described in the FIR. However, the India branch of the Tricontinental Institute of Social Research in Said-ul-Ajaib, south Delhi, was also raided on October 3. The executive director of Tricontinental is Marxist historian and author Vijay Prashad, who is based in the US.
Prashad posted on X on Friday saying: “Those who accuse @newsclickin and myself of treason are saying that those who stand with the mass of the Indian people — the peasants and workers — are anti-Indian. To be India, for them, is to be with Adani. We are anti-Adani Indians. We are Jai Kisan, Jai Mazdoor Indians.”
The FIR alleges that Purkayastha “conspired with a group namely People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the electoral process during 2019 General Elections”.
Xiaomi and Vivo
It says: “It is further learnt that big Chinese Telecom companies like Xiaomi and Vivo etc. incorporated thousands of shell companies in India in violation of PMLA/ FEMA for illegally infusing foreign funds in India in furtherance of this conspiracy. Further Shri Prabir Purkayastha, Shri Neville Roy Singham, Ms. Geeta Hariharan, Shri Gautam Bhatia (key person) conspired to create a Legal Community Network in India to campaign for and put up spirited defense of legal cases against aforementioned Chinese Telecom Companies in return for benefits by these Chinese Companies.”
The Congress and Trinamul had objected to the PM Cares Fund receiving money from Chinese firms such as Xiaomi in 2020. The ED seized more than Rs 5,000 crore worth of the firm’s bank deposits during a probe into illegal foreign remittances last year.
Xiaomi India held a share of 11 per cent in the Indian smartphone market during the second quarter of the calendar year 2023, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
Counterpoint pegs the Chinese smartphone maker’s market share at 15 per cent during the second quarter of 2023.
The company operates through various contract manufacturers to make mobile phones and televisions in India. Recently, one of the company’s suppliers — Dixon Technologies India Ltd — announced the establishment of a new plant on Delhi’s outskirts.
Vivo held a market share of 16 per cent, according to IDC data — 17 per cent, according to Counterpoint — during the second quarter of 2023. The company manufactures smartphones at its factory in Greater Noida. The brand is owned by BBK of China.
A Xiaomi India spokesperson denied the accusations in the FIR, Reuters reported.
“We have no knowledge about this. We strongly deny the said allegation against Xiaomi in the FIR,” the agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.
“Xiaomi conducts its business operations with utmost respect to, and in strict compliance of, applicable laws. Any allegation of conspiracy is completely baseless.”
NewsClick statement
NewsClick tweeted on Friday evening: “A few of us met Prabir yesterday when he was briefly brought to the NewsClick office, from where more documents and devices were seized. Prabir is in good spirits and is heartened by solidarity from the media and citizens of conscience…. Last night, around 9:30pm, the Delhi Police removed their seal from our office. This was after they once again seized documents and devices, making work close to impossible. But we will continue our journalism with your continued support.”
In a statement on Friday night, NewsClick said: “The allegations in the FIR, apart from being ex facie untenable and bogus, have been made time and again, in investigations by three government agencies — the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police, and the income tax department.
“None of these investigations led to any chargesheets or complaints over the last three years. In fact, Prabir was granted interim protection in these investigations. The latest FIR has been registered only to circumvent this protection and carry out illegal arrests under the draconian UAPA.
“As stated in previous Newsclick statements, Newsclick has not received any funding or instructions from China or Chinese entities. Further, Newsclick has never committed or sought to encourage violence, secession or any illegal act in any manner whatsoever....
“The completely absurd nature of allegations in the FIR clearly show that the proceedings initiated against Newsclick are nothing but a blatant attempt to muzzle the free and independent press in India.”
Jason Pfetcher, US lawyer and an associate of Singham, claimed in a statement that none of the monies invested in NewsClick had a China link.
“All funds donated to PSF came from the sale of ThoughtWorks. PSF has never received funds from a foreign government.... When asked, WMH has provided the Indian authorities confirmation regarding the provenance of the funds invested in NewsClick by WMH,” he said in a statement put out to The Hindu newspaper late on Friday evening,
“Given the repression that is now taking place, it begs the question as to whether India is a safe place for foreign investors who carefully follow Indian law.”
