NewsClick rejects allegations in FIR as ‘untenable and bogus’

NT Bureau, Agencies

New Delhi: The NewsClick portal has rejected as untenable and bogus allegations levelled in a Delhi Police FIR against it, and said the proceedings initiated are "nothing but a blatant attempt to muzzle the free and independent press in India".

In an FIR filed under anti-terror law UAPA against NewsClick, the Delhi Police has alleged a large sum of funds came from China to disrupt India's sovereignty and cause disaffection against the country as part of a "larger criminal conspiracy".

It claimed the foreign fund was fraudulently infused by Neville Roy Singham, an active member of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China.The Delhi Police served a copy of the FIR to the portal on Friday.

"The allegations in the FIR, apart from being ex facie untenable and bogus, have been made time and again, in investigations by three government agencies the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police, and the income tax department," it said.