India police raid homes of NewsClick journalists in illegal funding probe

Indian police have raided the office of a news portal and the homes of journalists and writers linked to it as part of an investigation into suspected illegal foreign funding of the media company, according to two government officials.

Indian police have raided the office of a news portal and the homes of journalists and writers linked to it as part of an investigation into suspected illegal foreign funding of the media company, according to two government officials.

Laptops and mobile phones were taken away as part of the investigation into the media company, NewsClick, the officials and some of the journalists said on Oct 3.

“A special investigations team launched a search operation to identify all those individuals who were possibly getting funds from overseas to run a media group with the main agenda of spreading foreign propaganda,” said an official in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) overseeing the raids by the Delhi Police.

Indian authorities registered a case against the site and its journalists on August 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that the website had received funds from an American millionaire who, the Times wrote, funded the spread of “Chinese propaganda”. NewsClick has denied the charges.

The raids were part of an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial crime control agency, into suspected money laundering by NewsClick, the official said.

Another MHA official said the raids were conducted at more than a dozen homes of journalists and some other writers linked to NewsClick.