Activist Gautam Navlakha was on Saturday questioned by the Delhi Police in connection with a case against news website NewsClick filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, reported PTI.

He was questioned at his home in Navi Mumbai for three hours by a team led by an assistant commissioner of police. An official told PTI that the activist was asked about his share in NewsClick and his links with the news portal’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha.

Navlakha, who was on house arrest, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon case on December 19. He was, however, not released as the High Court stayed the bail order to allow the National Investigation Agency to appeal against it before the Supreme Court.

The activist has been associated with Purkhayastha since 1991 and is also a shareholder of PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited since 2018, according to the first information report in the case against the news website.

The police have accused NewsClick of taking funds from China in a “circuitous and camouflaged manner” to disrupt India’s sovereignty.

The case was registered after The New York Times alleged in an August 5 report that the Indian news website had received money from American businessman Neville Roy Singham, who worked closely with the “Chinese government media machine” to spread its propaganda. The first information report describes Singham as an active member of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China.

On October 3, Delhi Police raided several journalists associated with NewsClick and Purkayastha and the head of human resources, Amit Chakraborty. They remain in judicial custody.

On October 6, NewsClick said that the “absurd nature” of the allegations shows that the proceedings are nothing but an attempt to muzzle the free press.

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