Over 200 police personnel involved in NewsClick raids at 30 locations, targets categories into three groups

New Delhi:  Before dawn on Tuesday, a meeting at 2 A.M of Delhi Police gathered over 200 police personnel to prepare for an extensive operation conducted by the Special Cell.

The operation spanned over more than 30 locations in Noida, Delhi, Mumbai among others, targeting NewsClick and its journalists.

Sources said that the raid commenced at 6 A.M and covered over 30 locations across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Mumbai.

A contingent of over 200 officials from various units of the Delhi Police Special Cell participated in the operation.

Sources said that a list of targeted individuals was categorised into three groups (A, B, C), with those in category A were taken to Special Cell’s police station in Lodhi Colony for questioning.

Journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, along with historian Sohail Hashmi, were subsequently released in the evening after extensive inquiries for hours.

During the questioning at Special Cell police station in Lodhi Colony, the police presented them with a list of 25 inquiries encompassing various topics, such as their international trips, involvement in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, and participation in the farmers’ agitation, as per sources.

Notably, no arrests have been made during the ongoing searches primarily focused on the Delhi-NCR region.

Sources said that the searches at various locations linked to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

A source told IANS that section 16 (Terrorist Act), section 17 (raising funds for terrorist acts), section 18 (Conspiracy) and section 22 C (Offences by Companies) of the UAPA have been invoked in the FIR.

–IANS