NewsClick case: HR head Amit Chakravarty moves court to turn approver

livemint.com:

PTI citing court sources. He moved an application before special judge Hardeep Kaur last week, seeking pardon in the case and claiming he had material information that he was willing to disclose to the Delhi Police, said the report. The matter has been posted before a magisterial court for recording Amit Chakravarty’s statement.

The approver, an accomplice who decides to testify against the co-accused in exchange for a pardon, is subject to examination and treatment under the CrPC. According to the PTI report citing Police sources, the agency will take a decision on whether to support his application before the court after going through his statement. The Delhi Police had arrested Amit Chakravarty and NewsClick’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha on October 3.

Both are currently in judicial custody. A large amount of funds to the news portal came from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India" and cause disaffection against the country, said the FIR filed in the case. It also alleged that Purkayastha conspired with a group -- People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) -- to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to the report citing the police, raids were conducted at 88 locations in Delhi and 7 in other states on October 3 on the suspects named in the FIR and those that surfaced in the analysis of data. Around 300 electronic gadgets were seized from the offices of NewsClick and the residences of the journalists related to the case. After the raids, 46 individuals, including 9 female journalists, were questioned by the police.