Former NewsClick Journalist Questioned and Personal Items Seized by Delhi Police Squad

At her residence in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, a former NewsClick journalist was questioned by a Delhi police squad, who also allegedly took her laptop and phone.

Anusha Paul, 32, was questioned by the team of two men and a woman who visited her family home in Kodumon late on Friday and coordinated with the local police about her connections to CPM leaders in Delhi and NewsClick's funding.

"My laptop and phone were taken away. When did I start working with NewsClick, and does NewsClick not receive funding from China, were among the queries (they) posed, she told reporters.

Paul, an office holder for the CPM's DYFI youth branch in Delhi, continued, "I don't have to fear anyone since I have not taken any money from anyone."

Paul was a NewsClick employee from 2018 until 2021; since then, he has worked as a freelance journalist. The longtime resident of Delhi was going to Kerala to care for a sick relative.

She serves as the Delhi state treasurer of the DYFI and is a member of the state committee for the CPM in Delhi.

Although Paul did not specify if she had been given a deadline, she claimed that the police had urged her to be present in Delhi.

She claimed that she was also questioned about whether she had written on the farmer agitation, the demonstrations against the citizenship matrix, or the way the Union government handled the Covid epidemic.

The NewsClick news website is accused of a conspiracy to prolong the farmers' protest through illegal foreign funding and publishing false stories to undermine the Center's response to the Covid pandemic, among other things, in the FIR that served as the justification for the Delhi police raid on the news website and the arrests of its editor-in-chief and HR head.

According to Paul, the police enquired into her relationship with K.M. Tiwari, the Delhi state CPM secretary, and the party.

"I informed them that I knew him. He is the CPM secretary, and I work for CPM," the woman remarked.

When she raised her voice against (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and the RSS, she said that the Delhi police were engaged in a "witch-hunt to threaten the organization and its employees."

Since Paul is located in Delhi, maybe explaining their lack of knowledge about her, DYFI sources in Kerala claimed.

The Kerala DYFI had protested against the "witch-hunt" against media organizations and journalists by the Delhi police and central agencies on Thursday in front of the state secretariat building.

The rally featured a sizable turnout of DYFI activists, and numerous leaders spoke out against the detentions and harassment of NewsClick journalists.