The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's order quashing the money-laundering case against news portal NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha over alleged violations of foreign investment rules, PTI reported on Saturday. ANI reported the agency has sought the Supreme Court's intervention to set aside the High Court's May 2026 order.
Source: PTI via Kalimpong Online News
In its plea, the ED has contended that the High Court quashed its Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) without examining the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and it flagged an inordinate delay of five months in the pronouncement of the judgment, according to PTI. The matter is yet to be listed for hearing.
ANI reported that the ED's special leave petition argues the High Court overlooked material evidence and conducted a mini-trial at the stage of a writ petition. The agency has said the court failed to consider emails, statements and other material that, it alleges, indicate the funding arrangements were pre-planned, and that it relied heavily on material presented by PPK Newsclick.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna of the Delhi High Court, in a judgment dated May 29, 2026, quashed FIR No. 116/2020 registered by the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing and the ED's ECIR, holding that continuation of the FIR was, in the court's words, nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law, and that once the predicate FIR was quashed the ECIR was also liable to be closed, LawBeat reported.
Source: LawBeat
The High Court held that the allegations did not disclose the offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust or criminal conspiracy under Sections 420, 406 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. It said the investment was an economic decision that did not spell out any criminal offence, noted there was no cap or restriction on foreign direct investment in digital media at the relevant time, and observed that the company alleged to have been cheated, Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, had filed no complaint.
The 2020 FIR alleged that PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd received foreign direct investment of Rs 9.59 crore — yaani about Rs 9.6 crore — from the US-based Worldwide Media Holdings LLC during 2018-19 by greatly overvaluing its shares, and that over 45 per cent of the investment was diverted towards salaries, consultation fees, rent and other expenses. These are allegations in the FIR; the High Court held that a digital media company's spending on salaries, consultancy and rent could not by itself be treated as siphoning of funds.
Live Law, which first reported the ED's Supreme Court filing, noted the case number as Diary No. 63217/2026 and said the proceedings quashed by the High Court are separate from the UAPA case registered by the Delhi Police's Special Cell against NewsClick and Purkayastha, which is independent of the EOW FIR and the ED proceedings.
Source: Live Law