The Enforcement Directorate said that the investigation into the money laundering case against media portal ‘Newsclick’ has revealed that the promoters of the media outlet received nearly Rs 38 crores from entities which may be associated with the Communist Party of China.
As per reports, an officer probing the money laundering case revealed that Newsclick had financial dealings with a Sri Lankan-Cuban based businessman named Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly funnelled Rs 38 crore to PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd between 2018 and 2021 from abroad.
The officials, who have traced the money flow of the media outlet, said that Singham is associated with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The ED officials also reportedly said that the investigation had established that part of the money Newsclick allegedly received from foreign sources, which was then routed to Gautam Navlakha, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case. The ED had recently interrogated Navlakha in jail for his links with Newsclick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha.
In February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate had raided premises and the residences of several officials and journalists associated with NewsClick, a news media portal is most famously known for peddling fake stories. The officials had also raided NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to foreign funding.