NewsClick case: Delhi Police to quiz Navlakha
New Delhi, December 30
A Delhi Police team will be questioning activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with the ongoing probe into news portal NewsClick’s alleged foreign fundings, official sources said.
The team is learnt to have left for Mumbai to question Navlakha, they said, adding he would be questioned at his residence there. Navlakha, who was under house arrest, was granted bail on December 19 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
In August, an FIR under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was registered against NewsClick, alleging a large amount of funds came from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India and cause disaffection against the country”.
The investigating agency had arrested news portal’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakravarty on October 3. They are currently in judicial custody.
The FIR had further claimed that the Chinese funds were allegedly distributed to Navlakha and his associates like Teesta Seetalvad and her husband Javed Anand, and journalists Urmilesh, Aratrika Halder, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Abhisar Sharma among others.
Navlakha has been associated with Purkayastha since 1991 and is also a shareholder of PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited since 2018, according to the FIR.
