New Delhi [India], July 23 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Prabir Purkayastha, the Editor-in-Chief and founder of digital news outlet NewsClick, in relation to two separate investigations--one by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) concerning alleged money laundering and another by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police probing claims of unlawful foreign funding.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna ruled in favour of Purkayastha's bail petitions, granting him protection from arrest in both matters.
Alongside Purkayastha, the court also approved anticipatory bail for Pranjal Pandey in the foreign funding case filed by Delhi Police's EOW.
Prabir was represented by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Dayan Krishnan, Siddharth Agarwal, alongside Advocates Arshdeep Singh Khurana, Harsh Srivastava, Sidak Singh Anand, Shreedhar Kale, Rupali Samuel, Sowjhanya Shanker
The accusations stem from a First Information Report (FIR) that alleges NewsClick's parent company, PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd, received Rs 9.59 crore in Foreign Direct Investment from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, based in the USA, during the 2018-19 financial year--purportedly in breach of existing regulations.
It was stated that both Purkayastha and Pandey had previously been granted interim protection from arrest in 2021 while the investigations were ongoing. A detailed copy of the court's recent order is expected soon.
ED in February 2021 had raided the premises of NewsClick and residences of its editor in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and conducted search and seizure operations. The ED case related to alleged foreign funding is based on an FIR registered by Delhi Police's Economic Offence Wing.