Court gives time to Delhi Police to respond to Newsclick editor’s plea seeking return of electronic equipment
New Delhi, October 31 (IANS). A Delhi court on Tuesday gave Delhi Police time till November 10 to file its reply on the application of Newsclick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha seeking information about documents seized by the police in a case registered under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A demand was made to return their electronic equipment.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) of Patiala House Court Hardeep Kaur gave time to the police on the request made for this.
Last week, Purkayastha and HR chief Amit Chakraborty had moved the court, seeking bail and release of electronic devices seized by the police, respectively.
ASJ Kaur has given Delhi Police time till October 31 to respond to the application filed by Purkayastha and till November 4 on Chakraborty’s bail plea.
Delhi Police had told the court on October 25 that it had the right to seek further custody of Purkayastha and Chakraborty, and needed to confront them with protected witnesses and recovered electronic material.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) of police Atul Srivastava told the court that they have the right to seek further custody and hence, they are exercising it.
After this, ASJ Kaur sent both of them to police custody till November 2. Meanwhile, lawyer Arshdeep Singh Khurana appeared for Purkayastha and said that grounds for detecting a larger conspiracy were also taken on the first day and the trial on second remand is too much.
He further argued that they needed to show “what new thing they need to discover. Whatever they want to do in police custody can also be done in judicial custody.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Purkayastha and Chakraborty on October 3. A day after his arrest, ASJ Kaur sent him to seven days’ police custody on October 4.
After this both of them moved the High Court challenging their police remand, which was upheld by the High Court. The two have now taken the case to the Supreme Court against the rejection of their petitions challenging the police remand and on October 19, the top court had issued notice to Delhi Police on the petitions.
In August, a ‘New York Times’ investigative report accused NewsClick of being an organization funded by a network linked to American millionaire Neville Roy Singham for allegedly promoting China’s propaganda.
–IANS
SGK
