NewsClick welcomed the Delhi High Court judgment, ordering the quashing of cases filed by the Delhi Police and India’s Enforcement Directorates (ED) on Thursday, June 11.
“The judgement of the Delhi high court vindicates our position. It also takes a strong stand in support of independent journalism in India,” the statement issued by the news portal on Thursday said.
“NewsClick has always maintained that the numerous cases and charges against it are attacks on the freedom of press. NewsClick’s only ‘fault’ has been to practice journalism that covers people’s movements,” the statement further added.
On Wednesday, a single judge bench of the Delhi High Court quashed the cases filed by Delhi police’s Economic Offences’ Wing (EOW) and the country’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED) agency handling issues related to economic fraud, claiming their continuation was “nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law.”
The judge, Neena Bansal Krishna, further observed that the ED proceedings were “not only mala fide, but also an arbitrary attack and abuse of powers on the free and impartial journalism of NewsClick and Prabir Purkayastha.”
The vilification of NewsClick
Delhi police’s EOW filed a First Information Report (FIR), the first step of the criminal justice process in India, against the company running the news portal, PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited, in 2020. A complaint received by the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was the basis of the FIR.
The FIR accused NewsClick of receiving a foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 9.59 crore (USD 1.5 million at the time) from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC US (WMH) during the financial year 2018-19. According to the country’s foreign investment law, the FIR alleged, this exchange is a violation, causing a loss to the government exchequer.
WMH had agreed to invest USD 4.5 million in NewsClick in three installments in exchange for a 23% share in NewsClick.
The FIR alleged that NewsClick overvalued its share transactions in order to circumvent FDI restrictions and also siphoned the money received in salaries, rent, etc. It also alleged NewsClick of being involved in money laundering and other criminal conspiracies.
Based on the FIR, the ED registered its own Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and raided the NewsClick premises and residences of its editors in February 2021.
During the proceedings of the case, the court found that the allegations about NewsClick violating restrictions on the FDI in digital media were false as no such restrictions existed at the time of the agreement between NewsClick and WMH.
In the judgement, the court observed that the prosecution had failed to establish any of its allegations against NewsClick or Prabir, such as cheating, siphoning off money, money laundering, and criminal conspiracy. It subsequently ordered the quashing of the FIR and the ED’s related ECIR.
The ultra-right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led union government in India, its ministers and TV channels further tried to vilify NewsClick following the publication of a hit piece in The New York Times in August 2023, alleging the portal to be a part of “China funded propaganda network.”
Based on the media hype, the police filed fresh cases against Prabir and NewsClick under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), accusing them of being involved in anti-national activities.
Prabir had to spend almost eight months in jail after his arrest in October 2023 following the filing of this fresh case. He was released from prison after the country’s top court found his arrest illegal.
Following the October 2023 raid, in which dozens of reporters and staff of NewsClick were harassed and their equipment confiscated, the bank accounts of the news outlet were frozen within months. This made it impossible for the news portal to pay its staff, resulting in the loss of jobs.
A deliberate attempt to scuttle independent media
The cases against NewsClick were largely seen as part of the BJP-led government’s attempt to silence the independent media in India.
NewsClick was specifically targeted because of its extensive coverage of farmers’ movements, anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, and the issue of Kashmir, among others, which most of the “mainstream” media failed to report on, apparently under pressure from the government.
Various journalists, trade unions, and left parties welcomed the verdict on Thursday. Some of them also raised the issue of accountability for the officials responsible for deliberate damage done to NewsClick and Prabir.
The important question is “will there be action against the ED for the misery inflicted, including the prolonged incarceration of Purkayastha, the harassment of NewsClick employees, the confiscation of their equipments, the freezing of their bank accounts that forced the organization to downsize, resulting in the loss of so many jobs and consequent hardship to them and their families,” asked the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) in a social media post on Thursday.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a joint union of farmers which led the 2020-2021 protests against the government, also issued a statement welcoming the High Court judgement in the NewsClick case.
The verdict yet again establishes that the BJP government in India is “weaponizing laws” to terrorize patriotic farmers and workers and using “nationalist” camouflage to suppress democratic movements, curb freedom of press, and independent media, SKM said in the statement.
SKM also demanded accountability for the officials involved in falsely framing NewsClick and compensation for the organization and its former employees.
The judgement in the NewsClick case is a “scathing indictment of the [Narendra] Modi government’s brazen misuse of investigative agencies to intimidate journalists, suppress dissent and undermine press freedom,” said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a social media post on Thursday.
elevation , June 11, 2026
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