New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, who was arrested by the Delhi Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over allegations that the media outlet received money to spread pro-China propaganda.
“There is no hesitation in the mind of the court to reach a conclusion that a copy of remand application in the purported exercise of communication of grounds of arrest in writing was not provided to the accused-appellant or his counsel before the passing of remand order dated October 4, 2023, which vitiates the arrest and the subsequent remand of the appellant. As a result, the appellant is entitled to a direction for release from custody…Accordingly, the arrest of the appellant followed by the remand order and the impugned order passed by the Delhi High Court are hereby declared to be invalid in the eyes of law and are quashed and set aside,” said a bench presided over by Justice B.R. Gavai.
“Though we would have been persuaded to direct the release of the appellant without requiring him to furnish his bonds of security since the charge sheet has been filed, we feel it appropriate to direct the release of the appellant from custody on furnishing the bonds to the satisfaction of the trial court,” added the bench, also comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta.
The apex court clarified that none of its observations will be treated as a comment on the merits of the case.
In October last year, Justice Gavai-led Bench issued notice to the Delhi Police on the special leave petition filed by Purkayastha against the decision of the Delhi High Court upholding the police remand.
The Delhi Police arrested Purkayastha and Human Resources head Amit Chakraborty on October 3, 2023, after multiple raids, including at the NewsClick office, and residences of editors and reporters of the news portal.
It was contended that the arrests violated the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Pankaj Bansal case, which had made it compulsory for the police to supply “written” grounds of arrest to the accused at the time of being arrested.
–IANS
pds/dpb
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
