Now CBI searches NewsClick editor's home

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, 11 October, reached the residence of NewsClick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha to search the premises.

Reportedly, the probe is in connection with a case of under the Foreign Contribution Violation Act (FCRA).

NewsClick has already declared after raids by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police earlier this month that all of its foreign funding was approved by the Reserve Bank of India, as submitted in courts during the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation previously.

The CBI investigation on NewsClick is the latest addition to a series of probes into the funding of this media organisation, starting with the ED's probe initiated in 2021.

According to reports, an eight-member team was at Purkayastha’s home and was questioning his partner Githa Hariharan, who is an author who has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She is also a founder member of the Indian Writers' Forum.

In its probe against the portal, the Delhi Police had alleged that funds were fraudulently infused into NewsClick by an active member of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China, an American citizen named Neville Roy Singham. 

The allegations have been denied by the portal.