According to police sources, the raids were conducted over illegal Chinese funding received by NewsClick. A case was registered on August 17 in this regard under UAPA and other sections of IPC, which include UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

The Opposition Congress termed the raids on NewsClick and its journalists a tactic of the Narendra Modi government to distract the country from the growing nation-wide caste census demand.

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“The early morning raids on contributing journalists at NewsClick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country. When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus – DISTRACTION” the Congress leader Pawan Khera posted on X.

RJD leader and MP Manoj Jha lashed out at the government calling the NewsClick raids “most unfortunate thing” and warned the government that the action will cost them.

“This is the most unfortunate thing… Why are you calling them Delhi Police… They are under Home Minister Amit Shah and nothing takes place without his consent… Those who deny to join their (BJP) ‘Bhajan Mandali’, do like this against them… What are they trying to show from all these… This incident will be written in the history and this step of the government will cost them,” Manoj Jha said.

However, Union Minister Anurag Thakur and his party BJP defended the raids, saying action will be taken if anyone does anything wrong.

“I don’t need to justify… If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines…,” Thakur told reporters.

Senior BJP leader RP Singh accused the online portal of using Chinese money to promote the China’s agenda and defame India and stated that strict action will taken against those working against the interest of the country.

“If an agency runs the agenda of China using their money, it should not be allowed. Investigations were already going on against them. They are using China’s money to promote China and defame India. Strict actions will be taken against all of them who are taking money from foreign countries and working against India,” Singh said.

Urmilesh, one of the writers detained by Delhi Police, has been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government and its policies. In one of his articles, Urmilesh has called the current situation of the country “worse than it was during the emergency”. He had accused the government of using state machinery to suppress dissent.