The Delhi police has extended its raids on NewsClick to Kerala where a three-member team reached the residence of former NewsClick employee Anusha Paul near Kodumon on Saturday morning, recorded her statement and confiscated her electronic devices. Paul told reporters that she was questioned about her association with NewsClick and the CPI(M).
She said the questions ranged from whether she reported on farmers' protest, anti-NRC-CAA protests, or about the COVID-19 management of the Centre. "This is a witch-hunt to threaten the organisation and its employees who used to raise voice against the Narendra Modi government and the RSS," she said.
Paul was staying in Kerala for the treatment of a close family member. She further said that the Delhi Police asked her whether she knows the Delhi state secretary of the CPI(M), K M Tiwari. "Of course, I know him. I told them that. He is the state secretary of the CPI(M). I am a CPI(M) worker. I am a state committee member of Delhi unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and its state treasurer," she said. Paul added that the Kerala police was not part of the raid team.
Paul worked for NewsClick during the 2018-22 period and is currently a researcher with the National Platform For the Rights of the Disabled. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called the raid on NewsClick a fascist measure meant to gag the independent press. "Criticism of Delhi Police's moves against NewsClick should be taken seriously. Silencing opposing voices is a fascist tendency. GoI should uphold the freedom of media to function independently, fearlessly & truthfully," he said in a post on X.
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police arrested NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakravarty on Tuesday evening. In an extensive raid, Delhi police questioned a total of 46 journalists and contributors to the online news portal and seized their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets.
