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After the Delhi high court’s order quashing a first information report (FIR) and an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha was made public on June 10, the senior journalist spoke to AltNews about the verdict, the human cost of the proceedings, press freedom, New York Times’s role and what the judgment means for the future of independent journalism in India.

The money-laundering case against Purkayastha and NewsClick was registered in 2020 on the charges that the organisation received a total of Rs 38 crore in foreign funding linked to China-based entities with the aim of propagating pro-China content in India’s media ecosystem. This included Rs 9.59 crore received from US-based Worldwide Media Holdings LLC in April 2018 and an additional Rs 28 crore between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, Delhi Police invoked provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), alleging that the funding trail was linked to Neville Roy Singham, an Indian-origin businessman alleged to have links to the Chinese Communist Party.

The editor and NewsClick’s human resources head Amit Chakravarty were arrested in October 2023. Delhi Police arrested Purkayastha under UAPA allegations relating to the same funding trail. He remained in custody until May 2024, when the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail, holding that the procedure followed during his arrest and remand was illegal.

Now, in a scathing judgment, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna has observed that the continuation of the ED case was “nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law…” She also noted that the proceedings were “not only mala fide, but also an arbitrary attack and abuse of powers on the free and impartial journalism of the Petitioners.”

Here are some excerpts from Purkayastha’s conversation with AltNews:

What are your first thoughts on the Delhi HC judgment?

There is a sense of relief. At the same time, I do not want to take that feeling too far because other cases are still pending and they intend to........

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