The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to news portal Newsclick's editor-in-chief and founder in connection with a Delhi Police FIR concerning foreign funding.
Justice Yogesh Khanna issued notice on the plea by Prabir Purkayastha seeking anticipatory bail and sought status report from Delhi Police.
The court sought reply and granted interim protection from arrest to Newsclick director Pranjal Pandey as well on his anticipatory bail plea in the FIR.
The judge said he would pass a detailed order on the pleas later in the day.
The allegations in the FIR, registered by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, are that the company, PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd, received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Rs 9.59 crore from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC USA during the financial year 2018-19, in violation of the law.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Purkayastha, contended that funding from the US-based company was received by the Newsclick in the year when there was no cap on FDI.
He is a famous journalist and runs a digital media platform. Digital media platforms were allowed to get money from outside... The cap came the following year, Sibal argued.
He further argued that there was no question of siphoning off of funds as the same had been utilised for paying salaries to employees and that there was no loss to the exchequer in the process.
The high court has already granted Purkayastha protection from coercive action in the money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate, he said.
Sibal informed the court that the investigating agency issued summon to Purkayastha on June 30 to appear before it on Thursday, July 8.
Manjziit S Oberoi, appearing for the State, objected to the anticipatory bail plea, stating that Purkayastha "has directly come to the high court".
The FIR alleges that the investment was made by greatly overvaluing the shares of the company to avoid the alleged cap of 26 per cent of FDI in a digital news website.
It was further alleged that over 45 per cent of this investment was diverted/siphoned off for the payment of salary/consultancy, rent and other expenses, which payments are alleged to have been made for ulterior motives.
Therefore, the company has violated the FDI and other laws of the country and has caused a loss to the government exchequer, it alleged.
The company, through another petition, has already sought quashing of the Delhi Police FIR on the allegations of foreign funding on the ground that it does not disclose any cognisable offences as alleged.
The petition seeking quashing of the FIR is already listed for hearing on July 29.
The high court had on June 21 directed the ED not to take coercive action against the news portal and its editor-in-chief in connection with the money laundering case.
It had issued notice to the ED on the portal's plea seeking a copy of the ECIR lodged by it in the case.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU