NewsClick arrests: Delhi court sends Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakraborty to police custody till November 2

A Delhi court on Wednesday remanded NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and the website's human resources (HR) head Anil Chakraborty to Delhi police's custody for nine days in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case against them.

Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts said Purkayastha and Chakraborty will now be produced before the Court on November 2.

Purkayastha and Chakraborty have been in judicial custody since October 10.

They were arrested on October 3 and were remanded to seven days police custody initially. Later, they were sent to judicial custody till October 20 which was subsequently extended till October 25.

As judicial custody ended today, Delhi Police said they need custody of the accused to confront them with protected witnesses and electronic material recovered.

Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava appeared for the police and told the court that they have the right to seek further custody and therefore, they are exercising the same.

Meanwhile, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana appeared for Purkayastha and said that the ground to unearth larger conspiracy was also taken on the first day, and the test on second remand is much higher.

They need to show what is the new thing they need to discover. All that they want to do in police custody can be done in judicial custody as well, he stressed.

After hearing the arguments, ASJ Kaur allowed police's request for police custody.

As per the FIR, the accused illegally received crores of rupees in foreign funds and deployed the same with an intention to disrupt the sovereignty, unity and security of India.

The funds were fraudulently infused by Neville Roy Singham, allegedly an active member of the Communist Party of China's propaganda department, through a complex network of entities, it was alleged.

Purkayastha and Chakraborty had moved the Delhi High Court challenging their arrest, remand and the FIR lodged against them under UAPA.

However, the High Court rejected their plea challenging their arrest. The High Court rejected their argument about non-furnishing of grounds of arrest.

It held that the Supreme Court’s recent judgment was not squarely applicable to arrests made under the UAPA.

Purkayastha and Chakraborty have challenged the High Court's order before the Supreme Court. Their appeal is scheduled to be heard on October 30.