New Delhi: BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani Sunday attacked veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who is under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner for his alleged transactions with Newsclick.
Last week, a New York Times report claimed that Newsclick was part of a global network that received funding from Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media machine.
The ED, as part of its criminal investigation against NewsClick, its promoters and others, is probing alleged fraudulent foreign funds infusion of more than Rs 86 crore from entities linked to Singham into its holding company (PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd.) and is expected to file a charge sheet in this case soon.
The federal financial investigation agency is also probing the alleged transfer of funds of about Rs 40 lakh from NewsClick to the family members of activist Teesta Setalvad, transfer of about Rs 72 lakh to journalist and author Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, some employees of NewsClick and few independent media persons over a period of time.
It had found that NewsClick also allegedly paid Rs 17.08 lakh as "salary" to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha, Rs 97.32 lakh to Bappaditya Sinha, a shareholder in NewsClick and a member of the IT cell of the CPI(M) over an unspecified period.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), according to the sources, is investigating the "end use" of these funds.
“Since then Guha has been a petitioner in the Supreme Court claiming his phone had been hacked by Pegasus spyware (not established), written articles against the Adani group (he is the only Indian journalist referred to in Hindenburg) and as recently as Dec 2022 coauthored a book on Rafael called “Flying Lies” (3 years after the SC exhaustively scrutinised the deal and judged it to be totally overboard),” Jethmalani said.
“Guha who seems to have been a frequent contributor to the news portal now claims he was paid the money as a consultant to Newsclick! While he hasn’t put any consultancy agreement in the public domain to back his claims, ED will no doubt get to the bottom of the matter. In 2009 - long before his alleged consultancy- Guha authored a book titled “Media Ethics”. Wonder whether he’s measured up to his own standards?” Jethmalani asked.
Reacting to Jethmalani's tweet, Thakurta told NewsDrum that he has been a consultant with the company that runs, owns and runs the NewsClick portal since May 2018.
Thakurta said, "I have been raising invoices for my consultancy fees over the last five years. The amounts have varied and in certain months, I have not raised invoices.
"I do not know from where the Member of Parliament Mahesh Jethmalani arrived at this figure that he mentioned in his public tweet. He has not disclosed the source of his information.
"I am not obliged to Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani or anybody else to disclose my consultancy agreement with the company – PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited - that runs Newsclick..
"These consultancy agreements are with the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department. I pay my taxes and I file my income tax returns regularly. I am not obliged to Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani to show the agreement to him or disclose it in a public forum.
"What the New York Times has reported is that Neville Roy Singham is associated with entities that have paid money to the company that runs Newsclick.
"The legality of these transactions is currently being adjudicated in courts of law. I am not an employee of PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited, nor am I a part of the editorial board or the decision-making process in the portal.
"I have been associated with the portal for more than five years now. And, I continue to give whatever contribution I have to give to the portal.
"Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani has commented on a book that has been co-authored and published by me late last year. The title of the book is "The Rafale Deal - Flying Lies?".
"He hasn't even been able to spell the name of Rafale correctly in his tweet. He has spelt it as R-A-F-A-E-L instead of R-A-F-A-L-E.
"Mr. Jethmalani says that the Supreme Court has already decided on the Rafale deal. Of course, the Supreme Court has decided on it but our book includes a critique of the Supreme Court's judgments, the review petition as well as a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which was at that time headed by my classmate Shri Rajiv Mehrishi.
"To date, neither Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani nor anyone else has contradicted a line published in the book. I really hope Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani will read the book.
"I thank Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani for referring to my textbook titled "Media Ethics" published by the Oxford University Press.
"The subtitle of the book is "Truth, Fairness and Objectivity". The second subtitle of the book is "Making and Breaking News".
"This book is a textbook and has been used by students and other people interested in the media for over a decade now. I also hope Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani will read this book as well. I stand by every word written in that book and I go along with all that I stated in that book.
"I wonder if Sri Mahesh Jethmalani will follow in the footsteps of his late father and a former member of parliament, Shri Ram Jethmalani, who in the final years of his life became a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
The premises of NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha were raided by the Enforcement Directorate in September, 2021. It, last year, attached a flat worth Rs 4.52 crore, located in south Delhi's Saket area, linked to Purkayastha apart from fixed deposits worth Rs 41 lakh as part of the investigation.
After the NYT article, Purkayastha issued a statement on his portal denying the charges.
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