As of Friday afternoon, ED raids have been going on at the house of Newsclick’s Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha for close to 80 hours. Prabir Purkayastha and author Githa Hariharan have been detained in their house since the beginning of the raid.
Earlier, the Newsclick office was raided for over 36 hours and some equipment vital to our functioning as a news organisation was seized. Communication devices of directors and senior management have also been seized, which has, therefore, limited their ability to return to work or indeed, respond to queries of the media. Despite this harassment, Newsclick has cooperated fully with the authorities, and will continue to do so. We have nothing to hide, as we have operated completely in accordance with the law.
We are, however, disturbed to note reports in various media outlets based on information allegedly provided by senior officials of the Enforcement Directorate. The selective leak of misleading facts is nothing but a malicious attempt to smear the image of Newsclick and discredit our journalism. It also constitutes a violation of the sanctity of the legal and investigative process.
As mentioned in our editorial statement of February 10, these raids appear to be part of a trend of deploying government agencies against those who refuse to toe the establishment’s line.
We are deeply thankful for all the solidarity that we have received, and would like to convey to our well-wishers that we will resist all attempts at intimidation and continue our independent journalism.
