Chinese frontman Singham influenced content at Newsclick, allege investigators

New Delhi: An investigation carried out by the Delhi police and Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that news portal Newsclick was created to upload anti-national news at the instance of Neville Roy Singham who is alleged to be a Chinese front according to a report in the New York Times. 

The agencies scrutinised the funding pattern of Prabir Purkayastha’s company PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited allegedly by way of Foreign Direct Investment and transferring of export proceeds to reach the conclusion which ultimately be tested in the court during trial. 

Also read: I know Roy Singham and he's not a conduit for Chinese money: N Ram to Karan Thapar

The agencies allege that Prabir Purkayastha and Neville Roy Singham have been working together since the year 2017 and a scheme of transferring funds to PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd. was devised by them with the help of Jason Pfetcher, who is based abroad. 

It is also alleged that the scrutiny of the digital data revealed electronic communication between Purkayastha and Singham on various issues of interest to China. 

The agencies suspect that Singham was influencing the content of the news and therefore it was a case of paid news.
 
The ED alleged that an amount of Rs 1.55 crore was paid to one Joseph Raj, a ninth-grade educated electrician and friend of Prabir Purkayastha out of above referred to foreign remittances for maintenance work which the agency termed as very small. The agency added that it didn’t find any documentation for corresponding work or was produced during the search.

Another payment of Rs. 52.09 lakh was made to Bappaditya Sinha who is a shareholder of PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd and a member of CPI (M).

Besides, PPK Newsclick Studio also paid Rs. 20.53 lakhs to Gautam Navlakha as salary. Navlakha is an accused in the controversial Bhima Koregaon violence case. 

Following the scrutiny of emails, the agencies alleged that Singham had contacted Prabir Purkayastha with regard to the dubbing and subtitling of Chinese movies, namely, “Red Star over China (2019)” and “The Secret of China (2019)” produced by the Propaganda Department of Chinese Communist Party’s Sichuan and Shaanxi provincial committee.

The agencies alleged that emails showed that as a part of image building programme of China, several events or studies were being carried out for China by Purkayastha and his associates.