The police in New Delhi raided the houses and places of work on Tuesday of journalists who labored as employees or contributors for a left-leaning on-line information portal recognized for criticisms of the Indian authorities. The founder and editor of the information web site and one among its journalists have been additionally arrested, in line with The Indian Express, a neighborhood outlet.

Some writers have been detained whereas their property was searched or seized in the course of the early-morning raids. As one unfolded at his home, a video journalist, Abhisar Sharma, made one last plaintive post to X, previously often known as Twitter, at 8:05 a.m. native time: “Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone …”

The police, who fall beneath the direct command of India’s authorities, haven’t issued an official assertion about their motion.

Mr. Sharma, like the opposite focused journalists, had produced stories for an internet site referred to as NewsClick, a scrappy outlet finest recognized for its sharp invective in opposition to Narendra Modi, the nation’s right-wing prime minister.

NewsClick was raided by India’s monetary enforcement officers in 2021, after which a court docket blocked the authorities from taking any “coercive measures” in opposition to the location. Two months in the past The New York Times published an investigation that related NewsClick to a global community that funds pro-China propaganda, together with different materials.

Other Indian information retailers, citing sources within the Delhi police, reported that the brand new raids have been prompted by a case filed in opposition to NewsClick on Aug. 17 beneath an antiterrorism legislation often known as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, or U.A.P.A., which the federal government has used to stifle dissent.

Both the Press Club of India and an Indian digital news foundation referred to as Digipub stated they have been “deeply concerned” concerning the raids. The Editors Guild of India stated it frightened that the raids’ intention was to “create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws.”

India is now ranked 161st out of 180 within the World Press Freedom Index maintained by Reporters Without Borders, having fallen greater than 20 locations since Mr. Modi turned prime minister in 2014.

Tax authorities raided the BBC’s New Delhi offices in February, after one among its channels in Britain aired a documentary inspecting Mr. Modi’s function in anti-Muslim riots in 2002. Independent Indian assume tanks and information retailers like Newslaundry, a media-monitoring web site, have been raided and had their entry to funding blocked, as have worldwide support teams like Amnesty International and Oxfam India.

Anurag Thakur, India’s minister of data and broadcasting, stated of the newest raids: “I don’t need to justify it. If anybody has committed a wrong, then investigation agencies will work on that.”

NewsClick’s contributors embrace a big selection of Mr. Modi’s critics, together with a slapstick comedian and a historian in addition to journalists. One of the reporters taken in for questioning is doing essentially the most severe investigative work on the Adani Group, an embattled conglomerate with shut ties to Mr. Modi, in line with Kavita Krishnan, a feminist activist and former chief of a leftist political get together.

Ms. Krishnan stated that The Times’s protection of NewsClick and the funding community had left her “concerned that the Modi government would weaponize the story as an excuse, as a pretext for fresh attacks on journalists who are doing very important work.”

Criminal expenses, when they’re introduced, could possibly be very severe, she stated.

“U.A.P.A. is an antiterror law, under which you don’t have to produce any evidence at all,” Ms. Krishnan stated. “The allegation itself is enough for you to be put away for several years without a trial.”