JAISON WILSON: The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its order on the pleas moved by NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha and the news portal's Human Resources (HR) head Amit Chakraborty challenging their arrest, remand, and an FIR registered against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case allegedly connected to a Chinese funding case.
Justice Tushar Rao Gedela reserved the judgment after hearing more than 2 hours of submissions by the parties, saying the high court would decide at a later stage whether it should issue notice and hear the pleas to quash the FIR.
As the arguments resume on Monday, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Purkayastha informed the high court that Delhi police has till now not provided him with the grounds for arrest.
"All these things mentioned are false. Not a penny has come from China. But today we are on the issue of whether grounds of arrest were furnished or not," he said.
In the previous hearing, Sibal had pointed out that both the accused persons are entitled to counsel as per High Court rules.
The Senior counsel submitted that there is an 'overwriting' can be seen if scrutinize the remand application and the order of the judge, arguing that it has been "inserted" later.
Challenging the trial court order which allowed a 7-day remand of Prurkayastha and Chakraborty to Delhi Police, Sibal submitted the order stating that legal aid counsel was present, saying, however, he was not informed of it.
Chakraborty's counsel submitted that his client is suffering from 59% disability as both of his legs are paralyzed because of polio. However, there is no mention of his disability in the remand application, he said.
On the other hand, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Delhi Police, submitted that the allegations involving receiving about 75 crores and the stability and integrity of the country were compromised, saying it's detailed in the case dairy.
In the previous hearing on Friday, the court had noted the 'missing' of "grounds of arrest" in the remand order, pointing out that the counsel of the petitioners was also not heard.
The arrest of NewsClick founder Purkayastha and HR chief Chakraborty on October 3 comes after the Delhi Police searched 30 locations connected with the online news portal and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.
