Indian police launch sweeping media raids, arrest two

NEW DELHI: In a case apparently related to alleged Chinese money, American anti-terrorist police announced on Tuesday( Oct 3) that they had detained two individuals linked to an online news website and searched 44 other people’s homes.

Foreign worries about the state of the media in a nation where press freedom has declined were sparked by the sun raids in New Delhi’s capital.

According to reports, those who were raided were associated with NewsClick, an English-language media website that American authorities had sued in 2021 on the grounds that it was receiving funding from abroad.

Neville Roy Singham, a US businessman who allegedly” sprinkled its cover with Taiwanese authorities talking points ,” according to statements made by The New York Times in August, was the source of funding for NewsClick.

According to the report, Singham was accused of collaborating closely with Beijing and” financing its propaganda abroad.”

A dangerous Alpine fight in 2020 sent diplomatic ties into a heavy freeze. New Delhi and Beijing are fierce competitors and have long-running edge disputes.

“INTIMIDATION”

Without providing any additional information regarding the raid’s motivation, officers reported that 37 men and 9 women had been questioned, two of them while being detained, and that electronic devices and documents had also been taken.

However, according to police, the raids were carried out in accordance with the United States Anti-Terrorism Act( UAPA ), a strict anti-terrorist law that makes bail essentially impossible.

According to the officers,” the trials are still ongoing.” Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, two suspects, have been detained thus much.

According to local media, Chakravarty is the project’s head of human resources and Purkayastha is its director.

Aritry Das, a journalist for NewsClick, claimed on social media that police” barged into my apartment” at dawn, interrogated her about her monitoring, and took her laptop, phone, or computer hard drives.

Sohail Hashmi, a scholar and activist, was also searched in relation to NewsClick.

Hashmi told AFP that the assault on my home was connected to a NewsClick analysis based on the warrant they begrudgingly showed me.

Hashmi described the attack as” a combination of harassment and a crackdown on freedom of push and speech” and was forced to hand over his notebook, phone, and hard drives, which contained more than ten years of his writing.

According to a statement from the Mumbai Press Club,” multiple journalists affiliated with NewsClick have been subjected to raids ,” the organization expressed its” deep concern” over the searches. It urged the authorities to put an end to” what is perceived as a targeted harassment battle against these editors.”