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A Delhi court on Wednesday, 4 October, issued notice to the police on a plea moved by the arrested editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha of NewsClick, seeking a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case.
The news portal has alleged that it has not been provided with a copy of the FIR registered against them.
"We have not been provided with a copy of the FIR, or informed about the exact particulars of the offences with which we have been charged. Electronic devices were seized from the NewsClick premises and homes of employees, without any adherence to due process such as the provision of seizure memos, hash values of the seized data, or even copies of the data. NewsClick’s office has also been sealed in a blatant attempt at preventing us from continuing our reporting," NewsClick said in a statement.
Purkayastha and NewsClick's human resources head, Amit Chakravarty, were arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday, 3 October, after hours of questioning. Both of them were remanded to seven days of police custody earlier on Wednesday.
The police also questioned over 30 journalists associated with the news portal and seized their phones and laptops.
The probe was carried out in connection with a case filed against NewsClick under the UAPA case in August this year.
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