Prabir brought in money from China to fuel the unrest in Delhi

New Delhi: The Delhi Police have testified in court that Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and chief editor of NewsClick, brought money into India from China in order to fuel and maintain the 2020 Delhi riots, run a disinformation campaign about COVID-19, incite farmer protests, and engage in open funding of terrorism in Kashmir.

The charges were included in the police charge sheet that was submitted to Judge Hardeep Kaur of the Additional Sessions, who accepted them on Tuesday. According to the charge sheet, activist Teesta Setalvad’s several staffers received salaries from Purkayastha in the past. It added that an investigation was underway into the involvement of another activist, Gautam Navlakha, in the current case.

According to the final report, Navlakha was a NewsClick stakeholder. He was also included in the protected witnesses’ statements as one of the middlemen for the financing and provision of weapons and ammunition to a Naxal group that was outlawed. Amit Chakravarty, the chief of NewsClick’s HR department and an accused person who later became an approver, was quoted in the charge sheet as saying that Purkayastha used to pay several Setalvad workers “because the FCRA of Teesta got stopped due to some litigation.”

“Teesta was given funding with the understanding that she would use it to further social justice causes and societal unrest via her husband, her NGO Sabrang, and other channels. Her husband, daughter, son, and other employees received payments, according to the statement. As per the statement, Purkayastha was receiving illicit funds from various companies owned by Neville Roy Singham, a US national of Sri Lankan origin. Singham has been actively promoting Maoist ideology for the past ten years, allegedly at the request of his bosses, who can be inferred to be either China-sponsored or affiliated with the Chinese Deep State.