Urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha was questioned by a Delhi Police team on Saturday (30th December) at his residence in Navi Mumbai regarding the NewsClick foreign funding case. This interrogation came amid ongoing investigations into the propaganda portal’s alleged involvement in anti-India activities and receiving foreign funds from China.
Gautam Navlakha, currently under house arrest following his bail on 19th December in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was questioned about his association with NewsClick’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha, as well as his shareholding in the company, PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt Ltd. The interrogation, led by an officer of the assistant commissioner of police level, lasted three hours.
The Delhi Police team’s visit follows the FIR registered in August by the special cell under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against NewsClick, Purkayastha, and others. This FIR alleged substantial funding from China to NewsClick with intentions to “disrupt the sovereignty of India and cause disaffection against the country”. Purkayastha, along with the human resources department head Amit Chakravarty, was arrested on 3rd October 2023 and is currently in judicial custody.
The FIR also claimed that the Chinese funds were distributed to various individuals, including Navlakha and associates like activists Teesta Seetalvad, her husband Javed Anand, and journalists Urmilesh, Aratrika Halder, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and Abhisar Sharma. It further accused Purkayastha of conspiring with the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to sabotage the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Gautam Navlakha has been linked with Purkayastha since 1991 and has been a shareholder in NewsClick since its inception in 2018. He is one of the 15 accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case, which was registered based on a complaint alleging that Maoist-linked individuals incited violence through provocative acts at the Elgar Parishad event in 2017.
In a media interaction, Gautam Navlakha’s partner Sahba Hussain said, “I was not with him at the time, as I am out presently. I hence do not have the gist of what has happened as yet. I will get to know only once I speak to him. But I understand the special cell team was there for over three hours to investigate the Newsclick issue.”