The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha’s arrest by the Delhi Police and his remand in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 as illegal.
The apex court noted that a copy of the remand application was not provided to Purkayastha or his counsel before passing the remand order on October 4, 2023, which means that the grounds of the arrest were not supplied to him in writing. It was the case of the Delhi police that the requirement to furnish the grounds of arrest in writing was fulfilled by the serving of the remand application.
The court said that there is no hesitation in the mind of the court to reach to a conclusion that a copy of the remand application, in the purported exercise of the communication of the grounds of arrest in writing, was not provided to the accused-appellant or his counsel before the passing of the remand order dated 4th October, 2023, which vitiates the arrest and the subsequent remand of the appellant. The court observed that due to the same, the appellant is entitled to a direction for release from custody by applying the ration of the judgment rendered by this court in Pankaj Bansal.
Subsequently, the arrest and the remand were declared invalid in the eyes of law and were set aside and the court ordered the release of Prabir Purkayasatha. The court further ordered that the release will be subject to him furnishing the bail and bonds to the satisfaction of the trial Court, since chargesheet has been filed.
A bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta delivered the verdict, after having concluded arguments on April 30. Prabir Purkayastha has been in custody since October 3 last year under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case over receiving Chinese funds to propagate anti-national propaganda. NewsClick Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purakayastha was represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the Delhi Police.
Prabir Purkayastha moved the apex court challenging the legality of his arrest by contending that the grounds of arrest were not supplied to him in writing as mandated by the Supreme Court’s judgment in Pankaj Bansal. Meanwhile, the Delhi police contended that the grounds of arrest were contained in the remand application.
The apex court had noted that the remand order was recorded to have been passed at 6 AM on October 4, 2023. Nonetheless, the copy of the remand application was served on Purkayastha’s lawyer much later.
The NewsClick founder had filed the petition assailing a decision of the Delhi High Court upholding his arrest by the Delhi Police. In today’s judgment, the Supreme Court set aside the Delhi High Court’s judgment as well.
Meanwhile, co-accused and NewsClick human resources head Amit Chakraborty had also approached the top court challenging his arrest, but he was allowed to withdraw his plea after he turned approver for the ED and was granted a pardon.