The People’s Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd., was allegedly used for purposefully peddling false narratives through paid news in exchange for millions of rupees in illegally routed foreign funds as part of a conspiracy, according to the FIR filed by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell against NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha.
It is also known that large Chinese telecom firms like Xiaomi and Vivo, among others, contribute to foreign funding. “Foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, and security of India,” Delhi Police stated in the FIR.
On Wednesday, Delhi Police said in a remand application that NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha had collaborated with a Shanghai-based business to spread the myth that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed regions.
Through the remand application, Delhi Police informed the court that undercover information indicated that Prabir Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham, who is rumored to be an active member of the Communist Party of China’s Propaganda Department, and a few other Chinese employees of StarStream, a company owned by Neville Roy Singham and based in Shanghai, had communicated via emails about their desire to portray Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not being a part of India.
The remand plea further stated that such attempts by these persons reveal their conspiracy to peddle a narrative, both globally and domestically, that Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are disputed territories.
“Their attempts to tinker with the northern borders of India and to show Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as not parts of India in maps amount to an act intended towards undermining the unity and territorial integrity of India,” Delhi Police stated.
The accused allegedly planned to stop key services and supplies and aid in property damage and destruction by prolonging farmer protests with such unlawful foreign funding, the prosecution alleged.
Purkayastha, in the meantime, filed a petition with the Delhi High Court on Friday asking for the FIR filed against him and others to be quashed. In addition, he contested the trial court’s decision to grant him and HR Director Amit Chakravarty remand in the case. On Thursday, the Patiala House Court in Delhi granted a request for a copy of the FIR made by Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty.
