NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakraborty have been sent to 10-day judicial custody by the Patiala House Court in the UAPA case pertaining to allegations of Chinese propaganda, LiveLaw reported. 

This comes a day after the Delhi High Court reserved its order in their pleas challenging the trial court’s remand order.

During the hearing in the Patiala House Court on Tuesday, Purkayastha’s lawyer Arshdeep Singh Khurana opposed the grant of judicial custody after the expiry of the five-day police custody, according to the LiveLaw report. Singh said that far from a UAPA case, the FIR does not even establish a criminal offence. He said that offences under Section 13 and 16 of UAPA are not made out in the absence of any terrorist act or unlawful activity.

“I ask myself, what terrorist act have I committed? How can by reporting, by acting or by having profession as a journalist, can I commit terrorist act?...How can an act of journalism...if I am assuming that I am doing critical or impartial act of journalism about the government, can I be said that I am committing any of these unlawful activities? UAPA is not a restriction on Article 19(1)(a). You can’t be imposing these draconian laws on journalists,” said Singh, according to LiveLaw.

Purkayastha’s lawyer also denied the allegations of Chinese funding. He said that all the money which came to NewsClick came through banking channels which was duly reported to the authorities.

Meanwhile, Chakraborty’s lawyer claimed that the FIR does not mention him as an accused and that he is only a 0.1 percent shareholder of PPK Newsclick.

Arguing on behalf of the Delhi police, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said the police custody of the accused is not needed as their physical presence is not required at this stage. 

Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur then granted judicial custody.