Skip to main content

Delhi Police raids on senior scribes in the National Capital, select detention and threats of UAPA



Journalists in the National Capital Territory of Delhi woke up Tuesday morning with a shocking news of multiple raids on senior scribes associated with the news portal Newsclick dot com by the Special Cell of Delhi Police. These simultaneous raids have been reported in connection with the ongoing investigation in the alleged foreign funding of Newsclick.

Raided senior scribes include Urmilesh, a resident of Vasundhara, Ghaziabad  who produces and anchors a show for the portal; Abhisar Sharma, ex-NDTV and anchoring a show for Newsclick; Bhasha Singh, senior reporter; Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, senior columnist and writer who has previously been framed in a false case related to industrialist Adani when he was working with Economic and Political Weekly; Sohail Hashmi, a renowned cultural activist and heritage conservationist; with the chief of Newsclick Prabir Purkayastha, his wife Geeta Hariharan, Subodh Verma, Anindyo Chakraborty and others.

Police also raided the house of Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai, who is a Director in a company related to Purkayastha and Newsclick. There are reports of a scientist and writer associated with the Delhi Science Forum, D. Raghunandan taken away by the police too.    

It has been reported that the police has seized electronic devices of all raided persons and has detained four of them i.e. Urmilesh, Prabir, Anindyo and Abhisar. They have been taken to Lodhi Road Special Cell office in Delhi.


It is not clear whether these raids were categorically related to the foreign funding of Newsclick bcause the policemen, eight in number, that appeared in the premises of Urmilesh were talking of UAPA. UAPA is Unlawful Activities Prevention Act that prima facie does not apply on a working journalist until and unless he has done some unlawful activity.

Talking to CAAJ, a senior reporter who was present at the house of Urmilesh told that when he asked the policemen under what charges they are here, the cited UAPA. He told CAAJ, “They had no warrant and they kept searching for books, papers and documents. They seized some books and left for Lodhi Road with Urmilesh”.

Abhisar Sharma and Bhasha Singh were fortunate they could access social media before their phones were seized. Both precisely posted that police have landed in their premises and were seizing laptop and mobile phones.


As per a Wire report, these raids are in connection with “FIR number 224/2023. This case was filed on August 17, 2023, and invokes several sections (13, 16, 17, 18, and 22) of the draconian UAPA, along with 153(a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 120 (b) (party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code”. Although nothing has been officially stated so far.

A journalist associated with Newsclick Aritry Das has written:

Delhi Police barged into my home at 6 am. Took my laptop, phone, hard disks etc. Questioned about the reporting I have done. This is  in link with UAPA case  against NewsClick. Great time to be a journo.

A comic and satirist Sanjay Rajaura has also been raided Tuesday morning. His phone and laptop have also been seized.

Press Club of India and NWMI (Network of Women in Media in India) have issued initial statements condemning the police act.  


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fourteen Journalists assaulted while covering anti-CAA protests till date! Here is the list

Amidst the on-going nationwide protest against CAA-NRC several journalist were attacked, intimidated and harassed by the police when they were doing the ground reporting. Ironically most of them come from the minority Muslim community. It shows the bias against the certain community from the state machinery. Several other photo and video journalists were also harassed in these protests by the mobs and protesters.  Here is the current list of the attacked journalists (11/12/19 - 21/12/19):

ओडिशा: रेत माफिया के खिलाफ लिखने पर पत्रकार के ऊपर जानलेवा हमला

ओडिशा के बालासोर में एक उडि़या दैनिक के पत्रकार के ऊपर बुधवार की रात कुछ लोगों ने हमला कर के उन्‍हें बुरी तरह से जख्‍मी कर दिया, जब वे अपने घर से दफ्तर लौट रहे थे। पत्रकार ने हमलावरों की पहचान रेत माफिया के रूप में की है।   उडि़या के प्रतिष्ठित दैनिक समाज के पत्रकार  प्रताप पात्रा  के ऊपर बुधवार की रात नौ बजे धारदार हथियारों से हमला किया गया। उनके सिर, छाती और हाथ पर हमला किया गया लेकिन हेलमेट पहने होने के कारण उनकी जान बच गई, हालांकि हमले में हेलमेट टूट गया और सिर फट गया। हमलावर उनका मोबाइल फोन और सोने की चेन लेकर भाग गए। प्रताप ने कुछ दिन पहले बालासोर के रेत माफिया पर स्‍टोरी की थी। पुलिस के मुताबिक पिछले कुछ दिनों से उन्‍हें धमकियां भी मिल रही थीं। प्रताप ने बाद में स्‍थानीय प्रेस को बताया कि वे हमलावरों को पहचानते हैं और उन्‍होंने उनके नाम की सूची पुलिस को सौंप दी। इस मामले में पुलिस ने कोई एफआइआर अब तक दर्ज नहीं की है लेकिन जांच जारी है।

"Republic In Peril": Summary report of attacks on Journalists in Delhi post CAA

The Committee Against Assault on Journalists (CAAJ) releases a report titled "Republic In Peril" on recent cases of Assaults on Journalists in Delhi covering three months from December 2019 to February 2020. This report documents a total of 32 cases of various types of Assaults on Journalists covering socio-political developments in the capital city of India after the eruption of anti-CAA protests. The report outlines three phases of assault in Delhi. First in December, 2019 that started after anti-CAA protests erupted with centrestage being Jamia Millia Islamia University. A total of seven cases have been documented where Journalists who went to cover Jamia were assaulted physically. These assaulted journalists included mainstream news channels, agency, international media BBC and digital platforms. The assaulters included mob and police. This first phase lasted for five days from December 15 to December 20, 2019 although assaults continued nationwide for ...