New Delhi: Notices were served by the Supreme Court to news portal NewsClick and its editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, on Friday, after an appeal was filed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) challenging a Delhi High Court order quashing a money laundering case against them over alleged violations of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The Delhi High Court had earlier quashed the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered against the media house and its editor.
In its appeal, the ED argued that the High Court had set aside the ECIR without examining the merits of the money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency also raised concerns over the delay of nearly five months between the conclusion of hearings and the pronouncement of the High Court’s judgment, as reported by timesnow.in.
The High Court, in July this year, had quashed cases registered by the Delhi Police and the ED against the news portal and Purkayastha in connection with alleged violations of FDI norms.
In a judgment dated May 29, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna had observed that the continuation of the FIR registered by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) was “nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law”. Once the FIR relating to the predicate offence was quashed, the ED’s Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the matter was also liable to be closed, the judge has further held.
PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd, the parent company of NewsClick, received Foreign Direct Investment worth Rs 9.59 crore from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA, during the financial year 2018-19, in violation of foreign investment laws, causing a loss to the government exchequer, the EOW’s 2020 FIR had alleged.
The investment was made by significantly overvaluing the company’s shares to circumvent the alleged 26 per cent FDI cap applicable to digital news websites, the FIR claimed.
It further alleged that more than 45 per cent of the investment was diverted or siphoned off through payments towards salaries, consultancy fees, rent and other expenses for ulterior motives.
