The charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police blamed the founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha, for orchestrating the conspiracy of the CAA protests, claiming he and his team deliberately created a false narrative about the law. According to the charge sheet, NewsClick portrayed CAA as an anti-Muslim law that would deprive millions of Indian Muslims of their citizenship rights, which fueled the spread of misinformation.
The charge sheet goes on to allege that this misstatement contributed directly to the serious riots in Delhi from December 2019 to February 2020. NewsClick's biased and inflammatory journalism was aptly designed to raise unrest and fear among the Muslim community, misrepresenting the facts about CAA.
On a related judicial front, a court accepted the massive evidence registered in the Delhi Police's first charge sheet against Purkayastha, filed under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Another Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts reviewed the charges, scheduled the next hearing for May 31.
A few more emails, where the author is supposed to be Purkayastha, indicate that he worked as an agent propagating false narratives against farmer protests in 2020-2021. The document mentions this as attempts to test India's democratic setup and even promulgate violent upheaval as a means to social transformation.
The document further accuses NewsClick of being used to spread anti-national propaganda during the 2019 elections by publishing skewed articles challenging the right to rule of state policies.
Purkayastha, along with Neville Roy Singham and the rest of the group, is also accused of belonging to the International People's Assembly, a group that aims to rally the leftist forces of the world to promote extremist ideologies. The police claim that the other portal, 'peoples dispatch', is used by the IPA to generate unrest across the world.
The charge sheet also states that legal permissions for the prosecution of the accused under suitable statutes have been obtained and additional charges are being filed.
In addition, the judicial custody of Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty was extended, and a few days ago, Chakravarty agreed to testify against Purkayastha, pleading for leniency and stating he had important information to divulge.
This investigation has also resulted in the seizure of 480 electronic devices, and evidence emerged suggesting that NewsClick was receiving undisclosed foreign funding to destabilize India, while at the same time promoting Chinese governmental interests. This comes after earlier reports claiming that China had paid out large funds to promote propaganda that supported Chinese polici.
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