Delhi High Court extends interim protection from coercive action for Newsclick founder Prabir Purkayastha

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday extended the interim protection from coercive action and arrest granted to Newsclick founder Prabir Purkayastha in the criminal cases registered against him in connection with foreign funding and overvaluing of shares (Prabir Purkayastha vs. State of NCT of Delhi)..A single-judge Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna recorded in its order,"Heard. Issue notice. Learned APP for the State accepts notice and seeks time to file status report. As sought, status report be filed before the next date of hearing with an advance copy thereof to the learned counsel for petitioner through email. List on August 5, 2021.".The Court was hearing a plea filed by Purkayastha seeking anticipatory bail in the case registered against him by the Delhi Police. The allegation against Purkayastha was that he had received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the tune of Rs. 9.59 crore from one Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA, during the financial year 2018-19. This investment was made by greatly overvaluing the shares of the company to avoid the alleged cap of 26 percent of FDI in a digital news website. It was further alleged that over 45 percent of this investment was diverted/siphoned off for the payment of salary/consultancy, rent and other expenses, which payments are alleged to have been made for ulterior motives..Appearing on behalf of Newsclick's founder, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dayan Krishnan told the Court that the FIR was registered in August last year, but was not uploaded on the Delhi Police website. No investigation was carried out for over ten months. Further, Purkayastha only became aware of the FIR when the ED carried out a search and seizure operation at his residence.It was also argued that a bare perusal of the FIR would show that no cognizable offence existed..The Court took note of the fact that Newsclick had also filed a criminal writ petition for quashing of the FIR, in which notice was issued. This matter will be heard on July 29.Finally, a third criminal writ petition was also filed for seeking a copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) wherein again notice was issued and the respondents were directed not to take any coercive steps against Newsclick..The Court eventually listed the present case for hearing on August 5, 2021 while expressly ordering that the petitioner is not to be arrested till then."List on August 5, 2021 and till then the petitioner be not arrested. However the petitioner is directed to join the investigation as and when required by the Investigating Officer," the Court stated in its order..Two days back, another Bench of the Delhi High Court had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to supply a copy of the ECIR to Purkayastha..Delhi High Court grants Newsclick founder Prabir Purkayastha protection from coercive action till July 5 in money laundering case.Justice Mukta Gupta had ordered that the interim protection from coercive action provided to Purkayastha will continue till July 29, 2021. The order stated,"The respondent sought to dispose this as infructuous. However till date, the ECIR has not been provided to the petitioner. List on July 29, 2021. Interim order to continue.".[Read Order]