4 min readNew DelhiJun 11, 2026 01:19 AM IST
The Delhi High Court has quashed the Delhi Police FIR and Enforcement Directorate proceedings against news portal NewsClick and its founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha.
While the 2020 FIR by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police had invoked sections relating to charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and alleged violation of FDI norms, the subsequent ED action was on alleged money laundering.
In an order made public Wednesday, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, while noting that ingredients of the offences were not made out, quashed the EOW FIR and said, “The continuation of such FIR is nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law and is hereby quashed.”
With the scheduled predicate offence quashed, the High Court also quashed the ED proceedings.
It noted that despite “extensive investigations carried out by ED for about a year and a half”, not a whisper of any incriminating allegation had been found till date “which would even remotely suggest the commission of the offence punishable under Section 4 PMLA”.
For the offence of cheating, the High Court said, it is necessary to have an aggrieved person who has been cheated out of property, absent in this case.
On August 26, 2020, the EOW filed an FIR under IPC sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy).
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The FIR had alleged that foreign direct investment was received by PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited, which owns the digital portal, from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, US, (WWMH) during 2018-19, in violation of the FDI norms and other laws of the country. Through the FDI, WWMH came to hold 7.69% shares of PPK NewsClick Studio.
At the time of the fund transfer from WWMH, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had clarified that there was no cap/restriction on receipt of FDI in digital media.
Based on the EOW FIR, the ED lodged a complaint under PMLA on September 2, 2020 and conducted searches in February 2021.
The High Court observed that “no offence” under IPC offences for cheating and criminal breach of trust was made out. “From the response of ED also, it is evident that they are trying to claim that the offence under Section 120B IPC is still made out. However, on what basis the criminal conspiracy is being alleged is not explained, except that Prabir Purkayastha and Jason Pfetcher (WWMH manager), had entered into an agreement… Merely because the parties entered into an agreement is not sufficient to constitute criminal conspiracy, unless the ED is able to show what is the illegal objective or the means which have been adopted… which can be termed as criminal conspiracy,” Justice Krishna observed, while quashing the criminal proceedings.
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Newsclick, while seeking quashing of the cases, had submitted that the “FIR and the ECIR and the investigations conducted therein” were “merely an attempt to silence the independent and impartial reporting of various issues of national importance and are intended to create a chilling effect on various persons, including journalists, discouraging them from exercising their constitutional right of freedom of speech.” It was also highlighted that RBI too had found no wrongdoing.
The ED had also not provided the accused with the ECIR, which was also sought by Purkayastha and NewsClick in another petition. This petition was disposed of as infructuous, with the ED proceedings now quashed.