The Delhi High Court has quashed two cases filed against NewsClick and its editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, in connection with alleged violations of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules calling the probe a “gross abuse of the process of law”. The cases had been registered by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna ruled that the proceedings did not disclose any cognisable offence and described the action as a “gross abuse of the process of law”. The court also set aside the related money laundering case initiated by the ED.
“It has been held that if the FIR under predicate offence is quashed, the ECIR automatically, is liable to be quashed. Consequently, the complete ECIR is also quashed. Once the ECIR itself is quashed, the prayer for supply of the copy of the ECIR has become infructuous,” the judge ruled.
The Court 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 the Petitioners."
It was alleged that a substantial portion of the funds was siphoned off through salaries, consultancy fees and other expenses. After due investigations, the copy of FIR was forwarded to the Enforcement Directorate and the ECIR was registered.
According to the court, the investigation failed to establish any violation of the law despite extensive inquiries. The judgement observed that continuing the proceedings would amount to misuse of legal processes.
"There is nothing which has emerged even during the investigations ... that there was any person who was aggrieved or who was cheated by the Petitioner," the Court observed while concluding that the offence of cheating under Section 420 IPC was not made out.
The ruling comes as a major relief for NewsClick and Purkayastha, who have been facing legal scrutiny over allegations related to foreign funding since 2021.
