NEW DELHI — Indian police raided the workplaces of a information web site that’s beneath investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China, in addition to the properties of a number of of its journalists, in what critics described as an assault on certainly one of India’s few remaining impartial information shops.

The raids got here months after Indian authorities searched the BBC’s New Delhi and Mumbai offices over accusations of tax evasion in February.

NewsClick, based in 2009, is named certainly one of just a few information shops in India that’s keen to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his authorities.

Indian authorities registered a case in opposition to the location and its journalists on Aug. 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that the web site had obtained funds from an American millionaire who, The Times wrote, has funded the unfold of “Chinese propaganda.” NewsClick has denied the fees.

The case was filed beneath a wide-ranging anti-terrorism regulation that enables prices for “anti-national activities” and has been used in opposition to activists, journalists and critics of Modi, a few of whom have spent years in jail earlier than going to trial. No one has been arrested in reference to NewsClick thus far.

At least two journalists whose homes have been raided by the Delhi police confirmed their gadgets have been seized.

“Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone,” journalist Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, the platform previously often known as Twitter.

The Delhi police didn’t instantly reply to a request for a remark, however India’s junior minister for data and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, informed reporters that “if anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them.”

In August, Thakur accused NewsClick of spreading an “anti-India agenda,” citing The New York Times, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress. Both NewsClick and the Congress social gathering denied the accusations.

Under Modi’s rule, a number of information organizations have been investigated by authorities companies for monetary impropriety, elevating fears about shrinking press freedom in India. Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, ranked the nation 161st in its press freedom rankings this yr, writing that the scenario within the nation has deteriorated from “problematic” to “very bad.”

The Press Club of India mentioned it was “deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.”

“The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details,” it wrote in a statement on X.

Ties between India and China have been strained since 2020, when clashes between the 2 militaries in a disputed border space killed not less than 20 Indian troops and 4 Chinese troopers. Since then, New Delhi has banned many Chinese-owned apps, together with TikTok, and launched tax inquiries into some Chinese cell phone firms.

The Modi administration has additionally launched guidelines that require authorities approval for investments by firms from China and different nations that neighbor India.