The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided offices of web-portal newsclick.in as well as of its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, as per a report.
Searches were on at more than 10 locations in Delhi NCR to probe the proceeds to PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited which are alleged to have been to the tune of Rs 30 crores in three years. The raids are under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
As per the report, the funds were being disbursed to journalists/activists in the name of salary or consultation fees. Some of the names included activist Teesta Setalvad and journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta as well as Gautam Navlakha.
The report mentions a US-based company called Viking Systems International Inc which has worldwide presence in naval architecture and marine engineering solutions for offshore oil and gas industries.
Prabir Purkayastha, as per the website, is owner of the company. Pranjal Pandey, an additional director, is also being raided.
Prabir is also the director at multiple companies. One of them is Startacus Software Private Limited (SSPL). Interestingly, Gautam Navlakha is also a director with Prabir Purkayastha in SSPL.
The report speculated if its the same Navlakha who is one of the “Urban Naxals” arrested in the Bhim Koregaon case and allegedly has links with Pakistan’s ISI. There were reports that Navlakha was in touch with Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists as well. He apparently has been connected with the NewsClick company for 24 years now.
Further, there is a company called the DIGIPUB News India Foundation (Digipub) in which Prabir Purkayastha, as per ZaubaCorp, is a director. Other directors of Digipub include The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendra, Newsluandry’s Abhinandan Sekhi and Ritu Kapur of the Quint. The report further mentions that founding members of the organisation included Alt News, Newsclick, Newslaundr, Scroll, the News Minute, The Quint, The Wire and among freelancers, the names iinclude Akash Banerji, Faye DeSouza, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Neha Dixit.
