NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids at the places of news portal NewsClick and its journalists, officials said.The Enforcement Directorate had earlier also conducted raids at the firm’s premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency.Police recovered the dumped data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick. The Special Cell has registered a new case and started an investigation, officials said.Abhisar Sharma, a senior journalist, wrote on X,
“Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phoneSearches are also reportedly underway at Newsclick’s office in Delhi. In all, raids are underway at more than 30 locations, according to ANI.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case against the news portal and alleged that NewsClick received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The agency had also alleged that the money was used for anti-national activities.
On August 5, The New York Times published a report claiming that NewsClick had received funds from a network centred around American millionaire Neville Roy Singham to spread “Chinese propaganda” around the world.
The report claimed that Singham worked closely with the “Chinese government media machine” and promoted its point of view in various countries.