Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, was arrested on Tuesday by the Delhi Police in connection with a case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), following claims that it received money for pro-China propaganda.

According to a statement by the Delhi Police ’37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, 9 female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay.’

Thirty locations connected with the portal and its journalists were searched by the Delhi Police Special Cell today. Among those questioned were journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta as well as historian Sohail Hashmi.

Amit Chakravarty, the Human Resources Director of NewsClick, was also detained.

Purkayastha had been brought to the Delhi Police Special Cell headquarters earlier in the day for questioning. In addition, the cops also sealed the NewClick’s office.

In connection with the UAPA case, the Delhi Police searched the houses of numerous journalists and staff associated with the internet portal NewsClick on Tuesday. In this case, the police have questioned 46 persons.

During the raid, authorities recovered electronic evidence such as computers and mobile phones, as well as hard disc data dumps. The searches were conducted based on information provided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) suggesting alleged illegal activity by the suspects.

According to reports, police posed a list of 25 questions on their overseas travels, rallies against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Shaheen Bagh, and the farmers’ struggle.

The ED has previously conducted searches on the firm’s offices to investigate its funding sources. According to authorities, the Special Cell is currently continuing its search based on information supplied by the central agency.