India top court bails NewsClick editor arrested in Chinese funding case
Al Jazeera
Prabir Purkayastha was arrested last year after NYT report said outlet was backed by network pushing Chinese propaganda.
India’s Supreme Court says the arrest of NewsClick website’s founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha last year under a stringent antiterrorism law was illegal and has ordered his release on bail.
Purkayastha was arrested in October, nearly two months after a New York Times report alleged his English-language news website had been financially supported by a network pushing Chinese propaganda.
The 75-year-old journalist was charged with receiving foreign money and criminal conspiracy, and arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a stringent antiterrorism law which makes it virtually impossible to get bail.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Purkayastha’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial crimes agency, was illegal since it failed to communicate the grounds for detention in writing to him.
Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta declared his arrest “invalid in the eyes of law” and said he should be released, subject to the furnishing of bail bonds. The top court said its ruling on Purkayastha’s confinement was not a statement on the merits of the ongoing case against him.
Despite unpredictable, sometimes dangerous, skies, MEA and other airlines are still flying. Here’s how, and why.
Human rights group Viasna reports 1,275 political prisoners still jailed and face harsh conditions.
The Department of Justice said Google had ‘deprived rivals’ of opportunities to expand their search engine market share.
Matt Gaetz has faced allegations of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl, drug use, and misappropriating campaign funds.
British luxury automaker’s advertising campaign features models of varying ages, genders and races – but no cars.
After Ukraine strikes Russian territory with US missiles, what’s next?
Al Jazeera looks back at the most devastating period in Laos’s history, when the US waged a years-long ‘Secret War’ in the Southeast Asian country.
These were the key developments on the 1,001st day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump allies say they will ‘liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress’.
