New Delhi:
Prabir Purkayastha case: Sandeep Mehta and Justice BR Gavai’s bench declared today that the arrest of the accused is null and void due to the lack of a remand copy.
“The court is certain that the arrest was invalidated because the grounds for the arrest were not given. Release from custody is due to the appellant following the Pankaj Bansal case. “The remand order is deemed invalid,” Justice Mehta declared.
In its ruling from March in the Pankaj Bansal case, the highest court had ruled that the accused must be given written notice of the grounds for the arrest.
Mr. Purkayastha will be subject to the terms of his bail by the trial court.
While Mr. Purkayastha’s arrest has been ruled invalid, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, who argued in support of the police, stated that this may not prevent them from using their lawful arresting authority.
“Whatever you are permitted to do under the law, you are permitted,” Justice Gavai retorted.
On April 30, the Delhi Police was questioned by the Supreme Court for hurriedly bringing Mr. Purkayastha before the magistrate without notifying his attorney of his arrest. The remand order’s passing even before his attorney got his remand application surprised the top court as well.
Mr. Purkayastha’s senior attorney, Kapil Sibal, stated in court that he was taken into custody on October 3 and brought before the magistrate at six in the morning the following day.
Mr. Purkayastha’s lawyer was not notified, he claimed, and the only people in attendance were the extra public prosecutor and legal aid attorneys. According to Mr. Sibal, when Mr. Purkayastha objected to this, the investigating officer called his attorney and issued him a remand application via WhatsApp.
The bench had argued that the remand order must be made with Mr. Purkayastha’s attorney present in accordance with the norms of natural justice.
Days after a New York Times investigation claimed that NewsClick had received funds from a network spreading Chinese propaganda, Mr. Purkayastha was arrested on October 3rd under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Delhi Police charged NewsClick and Mr. Purkayastha with supporting terrorism and disseminating Chinese propaganda in a March chargesheet that was eight thousand pages long, including appendices.
Amit Chakravarty, the HR director of NewsClick, was also detained on October 3, but he was given permission by a judge to become an approver of the case in January.
The founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick was ordered to be released immediately by the Supreme Court on Wednesday in relation to a case involving the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). According to India Today, the Delhi Police neglected to give the applicant in the case a copy of the remand order, therefore the top court bench, made up of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, declared the arrest to be “VOID.”
The top court stated that Purkayastha’s arrest was legally void since the Delhi Police had violated the principles of natural justice by failing to give him a copy of his remand plea. Since the chargesheet in the case has been filed, the Supreme Court ordered his immediate release. The top court also stated that surety requirements for bail may be imposed by the trial court.
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Advocate Arshdeep Khurana, Purkayastha’s attorney, commented on the top court’s decision to free the NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief, telling news agency ANI that they had been instructed to provide the bail bond before the trial court.
“This is a major and a big relief because we have been maintaining from the beginning that the entire proceedings against him were illegal and the manner of arrest was illegal which has now been upheld by the Supreme Court,” Khurana stated.
Purkayastha was taken into custody under the UAPA by the Delhi Police Special Cell in October of last year. Following a New York Times piece that alleged NewsClick was being sponsored by an American billionaire to promote Chinese propaganda, multiple raids were carried out, culminating in his arrest. Also Read:-https://livendtv.com/supreme-court-investigating-agency/
The online news outlet NewsClick allegedly received large sums from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India” and create anti-Indian sentiment, according to the formal complaint against the company. Additionally, it stated that Prabir Purkayastha was suspected of working with the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) to disrupt the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
