A TEAM of Delhi Police have questioned activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with probe into NewsClick’s alleged foreign fundings and anti-India activities, an official said on Saturday. Navlakha was questioned at his house in Navi Mumbai’s Agroli for three hours by a team led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)-level officer. Navlakha was asked about his links with news portal’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and about his share in the company, an official said.

 

Navlakha, who was on house arrest, was granted bail on December 19 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. In August, the special cell registered an FIR under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against news portal NewsClick, alleging that a large amount of funds came from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India” and cause “disaffection against the country”. The investigating agency arrested news portal’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakravarty on October 3. They are currently in judicial custody.

 

The FIR claimed that the Chinese foreign funds were allegedly distributed to activist Gautam Navlakha and associates of activists Teesta Seetalvad, her husband and Javed Anand, and journalists Urmilesh, Aratrika Halder, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Abhisar Sharma, and others. Navlakha has been associated with Purkhayastha since 1991 and is also a shareholder of PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited since 2018, according to the FIR. It also alleged Purkayastha conspired with a group -- People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) -- to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.