India's Supreme Court orders release of NewsClick founder, calls his arrest 'invalid'

India's Supreme Court ordered NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha's release after it observed that his arrest by the Delhi Police in the anti-terror case was 'invalid'.

A bench of Justices Sandeep Mehta and BR Gavai on Wednesday (May 15) said that the court was not provided with the remand copy which made his arrest void.

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"There is no hesitation in the mind of the court that the grounds of arrest were not provided...which vitiates arrest. The appellant is entitled to release from custody after the Pankaj Bansal case. The remand order is invalid," Justice Mehta said.

According to the top court, the grounds for arrest should be provided in writing to the accused person in custody.

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Speaking about the SupremeCourt's order, Advocate Arshdeep Khurana said, "Supreme Court has held the arrest and the remand proceedings to be illegal and has directed the release of Purkayastha. We have been directed to furnish the bail bond before the trial court.

"This is a major and 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," he added.

Why did the Delhi Police arrestPrabir Purkayastha?

Delhi Police had arrested Purkayastha on October 3 under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, days after a New York Times investigation accused NewsClick of receiving funds from a networkwhich promotedChinese propaganda.

In the chargesheet, which was filed in March and ran through 8,000 pages with different annexures, NewsClick and Purkayastha were accused by the Delhi Police of promoting Chinese propaganda and terror funding.

A case was filed by the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) against NewsClickon October 11 for breaching the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

In its investigation, the Delhi Police claimed that Neville Roy Singham, who is an active member ofthe Communist Party ofChina's propaganda department, had fraudulently injected funds into the portal.

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The police also arrested NewsClick's HR head Amit Chakravarty on October 3. However, in January, a court permitted him to become an approver in the case.

(With inputs from agencies)