Delhi High Court Quashes Police and ED Cases Against NewsClick, Calling Them 'Gross Abuse of Process'

In a judgment dated May 29, 2026, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna of the Delhi High Court quashed the FIR registered by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing and the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case against NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha. The original 2020 FIR alleged that NewsClick's parent company received ₹9.59 crore in Foreign Direct Investment from a US-based entity in violation of FDI norms, with claims that shares were overvalued to circumvent a 26% FDI cap and that over 45% of funds were diverted as salaries and other expenses. The court rejected these allegations, finding that the investment constituted a lawful economic decision, that no FDI cap existed for digital media at the relevant time, and that the alleged siphoning of funds was not tenable given normal business expenses. The judgment noted that extensive ED investigations spanning 18 months had uncovered no incriminating evidence despite multiple summons and examinations. The court emphasized that for cheating charges to stand, there must be an actual 'cheated' party—in this case, the foreign investor—but no such complaint was filed, only an informant's complaint.