NewsClick, the news website being investigated for alleged connections to China-linked entities to broadcast Chinese propaganda, has been accused of a conspiracy to “disrupt sovereignty and territorial integrity of India”, according to a copy of the FIR accessed by NDTV this morning.
The FIR names NewsClick, the website’s founder, Prabir Purkayastha, and its human resources head, Amit Chakravarty, as well as journalists and civil society activists, and accuses them of trying “to cause disaffection against India” and “threaten the unity, integrity, (and) security” of the country.
“… secret inputs have been received that foreign funds in crores have been illegally infused in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India… Since April 2018, such fraudulent funds in crores of rupees have been received by M/s PPK NewsCLick Studio Pvt Ltd through illegal means during a short span of five years from M/s Worldwide Media Holdings LLC and others…” the FIR states.
The document claims “foreign funds (were) fraudulently infused by Neville Roy Singham”, an American millionaire believed to have close ties to the Chinese government’s media machine.
Mr Singham, who is now based in China’s Shanghai, was also named in a report by The New York Times, which claims he has a worldwide financial network supporting Chinese propaganda.
The FIR – which accuses NewsClick, Mr Purkayastha, and others of acting to “undermine the unity and territorial integrity of India” – links them to a multitude of topics, including the 2020/21 farmers protest and others for which the government was criticised by the opposition and social activists.
