FIR links NewsClick case to legal aid for Chinese companies

FIR in NewsClick case alleges that the accused promoted a false narrative against India’s pharma sector; incited and funded the farmers’ protest; and conspired to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as “disputed territories”

The Delhi police have levelled a wide range of charges in their First Information Report (FIR) against NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha, American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, and activist Gautam Navlakha, a shareholder of Newsclick who is presently under house arrest as accused in a terror case. These three individuals have been named as the accused in the FIR.

Some of the charges are: conspiring to provide legal aid to Chinese telecom companies such as Xiaomi and Vivo, which are facing tax evasion cases in India; acting against the national interest by promoting a false narrative against India’s pharmaceutical industry and the policies of the government in cohort with “anti-national forces”; inciting, supporting, and funding the farmers agitation, with the objective of creating law and order problems and causing a “huge loss of several hundred crores to the Indian economy”; and publishing news funded by money clandestinely routed from China.

The FIR said that “secret inputs” showed that Mr. Purkayastha, Mr. Singham, and some other Chinese employees of Star Stream, owned by Mr. Singham, exchanged mails which exposed their intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh “as not part of India.” and to “peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories.” The FIR also accused Mr. Purkayastha of conspiring with a group named the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 general election.

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On October 3, the Delhi Police arrested Mr. Purkayastha and NewsClick human resources head Amit Chakraborty, and have also questioned more than 40 journalists, contributors, a satirist, and consultants linked to the news portal over the past three days. On October 4, NewsClick denied allegations of publishing Chinese propaganda.

Mr. Singham, an American citizen who currently lives in Shanghai, and whose foundation has invested in NewsClick, is not known to face any legal or criminal case in the United States. The FIR was filed suo motu by Inspector Praveen of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on August 17, just days after The New York Times reported that NewsClick had received money from Mr. Singham to spread Chinese propaganda. 

The FIR accused Mr. Purkayastha, Mr. Singham, NewsClick shareholder Geeta Hariharan, and a Gautam Bhatia, identified as a “key” person, of conspiring to create a legal community network to campaign for and put up a spirited defense in legal cases against Chinese telecom companies such as Xiaomi and Vivo, in return for benefits from these companies. It claimed that these firms “incorporated thousands of shell companies in India in violation of PMLA/FEMA for illegally infusing foreign funds in India in furtherance of this conspiracy.”