NEW DELHI:
Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Tuesday raided more than 30 locations in the national capital which included the premises of NewsClick, as well as the residences of its journalists, after the media outlet was accused of receiving funds from China.
However, no arrests have been made so far.
During the raid, the Special Cell had also seized electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones, pen drives and also took data dumps of hard disks from the NewsClick office and the journalists associated with the organisation including Bhasha Singh, Abhisar Sharma and Sanjay Rajoura among others.
The residences of NewsClick writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were also searched.
“Delhi Police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone,” Sharma wrote on X.
“Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seized my phone,” Bhasha Singh also said on the micro-blogging website.
On August 5, The New York Times published an article titled “A US Tech Mogul Linked to a Global Web of Chinese Propaganda”, which alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network receiving funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who was purportedly closely associated with the Chinese government media.
Citing the report, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur asserted that the Congress, China and NewsClick had an “anti-India umbilical cord” and were pushing the agenda of the Communist Party of China through the website.
Two days after the Times report, NewsClick issued a statement in which it denied the allegations as baseless and lacking factual or legal support.
Sources indicate that the searches at various locations connected to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).
