A senior Delhi Police officer said that out of those ₹28.29 crore, ₹27.51 crore was received from a US-based entity identified as the Justice and Education Fund
By Sanjeev K Jha
Delhi Police’s special cell has found evidence that web portal NewsClick received ₹28.29 crore between 2018 and 2021 from four different entities linked to Neville Roy Singham, an American millionaire accused of spreading Chinese propaganda, and a consulting company that he sold in 2017, investigators aware of details have claimed
A senior Delhi Police officer said that out of those ₹28.29 crore, ₹27.51 crore was received from a US-based entity identified as the Justice and Education Fund, ₹26.98 lakh from another US-registered firm GSPAN LLC, ₹49.31 lakh from US-based Tricontinental Limited Inc and ₹2.03 lakh from Brazil-based Centro Popular De Midas.
“We have found during investigation that out of those received funds, the PPK Studio NewsClick Private Limited – the mother company of NewsClick – transferred ₹20.53 lakhs to Gautam Navlakha, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.
The revelations came two days after sweeping raids across five cities resulted in the arrests of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and human resources head Amit Chakravarty in connection with a case registered by the Delhi Police special cell under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
On August 5, an investigation published in The New York Times alleged that the portal was part of a global network that received money for pushing Chinese propaganda. The American newspaper said that millionaire Singham funded NewsClick, among other outlets across the globe, to sprinkle its coverage with Chinese government talking points.
HT reached out to NewsClick for a response over phone but did not get one immediately.
The Delhi Police officer cited above further said that PPK Studio NewsClick Private Limited was incorporated on January 11, 2018, by Purkayastha. “Three months later, the Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, Delaware – now a defunct company and part of Neville Singham network – invested ₹9.59 crore into the newly incorporated PPK Newsclick in April 2018. The foreign investors also managed to artificially jack up the premium of a share of ₹10 to ₹11,510,” he said.
A second investigator from the Enforcement Directorate — the federal agency first lodged a money laundering case against the website in 2021 — said that during the investigation, ₹52.09 lakhs was paid to an unidentified member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“In 2021, ED searched the premises of NewsClick to collect additional information and help probe money laundering charges against the company. We could unearth a money trail of foreign remittances amounting to ₹38 crore…We also got sufficient evidence that a good amount of money was also paid to several journalists on the rolls of the company. During our raids, we found that there were numerous email exchanges between Singham and the director and stakeholder of NewsClick. These e-mails revealed that money was paid to NewsClick to spruce up Chinese propaganda especially its role in Africa, and defending China’s crackdown on Jack Ma,” the ED investigator added, requesting anonymity.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury’s residence in the Capital was also raided on Tuesday because the son of one of his associates who lives in the same house works with NewsClick. Police seized a phone, two hard drives and a laptop from the house. “Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son, works for NewsClick. The police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating? Nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this,” Yechury had said.
The ED officer cited above said that investigators found out that Singham launched four US nonprofits. “Subsequently, he leveraged flexibilities offered by the US nonprofit regulatory environment to fund media outfits in several countries globally,” he added.
On Tuesday, at least 400 police officials raided around 30 locations across Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai and Ghaziabad, questioning 46 people, including journalists, freelancers, writers and satirists, for eight hours.
On August 17, Delhi Police’s special cell registered a case under Sections 153A (promoting enmity) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 16 (terrorist act),17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), and 22C (offences by companies, societies or trusts) of UAPA. In 2021, ED searched the premises of NewsClick and Purkayastha.
The website has denied all charges. “All funding received by Newsclick has been through the appropriate banking channels and have been reported to the relevant authorities as required by law, as substantiated by the Reserve Bank of India in proceedings before the high court of Delhi,” it said in a statement.