The Delhi Police said NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha was arrested after it found evidence that the online news portal pushed a "global agenda" to show that Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir are not part of India

In the remand application for his arrest which was exclusively accessed by India Today on Wednesday, the Delhi Police alleged that they have email trails between Prabir Purkayastha and American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham discussing how to create a map of India where Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh would be shown as "disputed territories".

Prabir Purkayastha was arrested on Tuesday along with Amit Chakravarty, the Human Resources Head at NewsClick. Their arrests came after the police conducted raids on the NewsClick premises and the houses of several journalists and employees linked with the news portal.

According to the police, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty received foreign funds amounting to more than Rs 115 crore to create the said map.

NewsClick has received foreign funds amounting to crores since 2018 through "illegal means", said the police. It said the funds were "fraudulently infused" by Neville Roy Singham through a complex web of several entities.

The Delhi Police also alleged that Gautam Navlakha, a shareholder in NewsClick, had worked with banned naxal organisations and had an anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai, an ISI agent. According to the police, the foreign funds received by Prabir Purkayastha were routed to Gautam Navlakha and others, including activist Teesta Setalvad.

These funds were also used to disrupt public life and damage public property through the farmers’ protest, said the police.

Further, Prabir Purkayastha engaged in a conspiracy to sabotage the electoral process during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. NewsClick also propagated a "false narrative" to discredit the efforts of the central government in containing the Covid-19 pandemic, said the police.

These "false narratives" were peddled through the 'People’s Dispatch Portal' which is owned and maintained by NewsClick using the "illegally routed" foreign funds, it added.

The Delhi Police sought the remand of Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty for 15 days, saying they needed to be interrogated over the 4.3 lakh emails which the Enforcement Directorate extracted from the electronic devices it seized from the NewsClick employees.

The two accused would be interrogated over the contents of the email which showed a conspiracy to create disaffection among various sections of society, said the police.

Further, it added that the raids at the NewsClick office are yet to be completed and they will continue after the questioning of Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty.