Bar & Bench: "The FIR names the following persons as shareholders of NewsClick - Prabir Purkayastha, Amit Sengupta, Doraeeswami Raghunandan, Bappaditya Sinha, Gautam Navlakha, Geeta Hariharan and Amit Chakraborty. Notably, the FIR mentions that Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham, Geeta Hariharan and Gautam 'Bhatia' conspired to create a legal community networkto campaign for and put up spirited defense in cases against these companies."
Newslaundry: "The FIR alleges that “Shri Gautam Bhatia (key person) conspired to create a Legal Community Network in India to campaign for and put up spirited defence of legal cases against aforementioned Chinese telecom companies in return for benefits by these telecom companies”
The Wire: "The best known and most visible lawyer carrying that name is the author of widely acclaimed books on the constitution and free speech, and his court practice has tended to be narrowly focused on human rights related cases. He is not known to have had any dealings with telecom firms, let alone Chinese ones."
Incidentally, the page of Neville Roy Singham's company names Geeta Hariharan's son (another NLSIU alum) as working with NRS (Rishabh Bailey). But Rishabh Bailey has not been named in the FIR, only his mother and Gautam Bhatia.
Returning to Gautam Bhatia, the Newsclick website has featured him a few times, but nothing very glaring. I also cannot find any links between him and Xiaomi and Vivo.
He is innocent. I simply cannot believe he sought money from Chinese companies. Why would he? He is an extremely successful lawyer and one of the foremost jurists and young intellectuals of India. He ranks in the same bracket as eminent NLSIU scholars like Menaka Guruswamy, Arghya Sengupta, Lawrence Liang Tarunabh Khaitan, Sudhir Krishnaswamy etc.
What proof does the govt have? It’s just baseless rubbish. Alumni from NLSIU and all NLUs must issue a statement condemning this.
I am still not clear about the exact allegations against Gautam Bhatia. Has he been named in the FIR as an accused? ▮▮▮
Gautam can only be charged if he actually took part in any sort of money laundering or was leaking secrets to Chinese intelligence. Which is obviously not the charge. So WTF is going on??
New Indian Express reports that TMC MP has tweeted in favour of Gautam Bhatia (below). But has Bhatia been named in the FIR for merely advising Chinese companies (as Gokhale alleges) or something further? This remains unclear and Bhatia has yet to make any comment.
"It is UNPRECEDENTED that a lawyer can be named in an FIR for providing legal defence to a client. Every entity is entitled to a legal defence & lawyers cannot be charged no matter what the accusations against their client company are. Delhi Police has clearly filed a frivolous FIR against NewsClick which has no merits and has purely been done out of the vendetta of Modi & Shah. Invoking terror charges has only been done to ensure that the journalists stay in jail as long as possible before they get acquitted because the process is the punishment."
Sanjay Hedge speaks out in support of Gautam Bhatia in the Telegraph (quoted below). ▮▮▮
“The day that a lawyer can be deterred from taking a brief that he would have normally taken, that is the beginning of a police state,” Hegde told The Telegraph.“This is a testing of the waters by the police. They have not yet named the lawyer as an accused. He has only been named as a ‘key person’ right now."
https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/10/06/newsclick-fir-says-gautam-bhatia-is-key-person-who-legally-defended-vivo-xiaomi
https://thewire.in/rights/delhi-police-terror-fir-against-newsclick-names-chinese-firms-xiaomi-vivo-puts-lawyers-in-crosshairses.
Bar & Bench: "The FIR names the following persons as shareholders of NewsClick - Prabir Purkayastha, Amit Sengupta, Doraeeswami Raghunandan, Bappaditya Sinha, Gautam Navlakha, Geeta Hariharan and Amit Chakraborty. Notably, the FIR mentions that Purkayastha, Neville Roy Singham, Geeta Hariharan and Gautam 'Bhatia' conspired to create a legal community networkto campaign for and put up spirited defense in cases against these companies."
Newslaundry: "The FIR alleges that “Shri Gautam Bhatia (key person) conspired to create a Legal Community Network in India to campaign for and put up spirited defence of legal cases against aforementioned Chinese telecom companies in return for benefits by these telecom companies”
The Wire: "The best known and most visible lawyer carrying that name is the author of widely acclaimed books on the constitution and free speech, and his court practice has tended to be narrowly focused on human rights related cases. He is not known to have had any dealings with telecom firms, let alone Chinese ones."
Incidentally, the page of Neville Roy Singham's company names Geeta Hariharan's son (another NLSIU alum) as working with NRS (Rishabh Bailey). But Rishabh Bailey has not been named in the FIR, only his mother and Gautam Bhatia.
https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-in/profiles/r/rishab-bailey-1
Returning to Gautam Bhatia, the Newsclick website has featured him a few times, but nothing very glaring. I also cannot find any links between him and Xiaomi and Vivo.
https://www.newsclick.in/author/gautam-bhatia
What proof does the govt have? It’s just baseless rubbish. Alumni from NLSIU and all NLUs must issue a statement condemning this.
#StandWithGautam
Gautam can only be charged if he actually took part in any sort of money laundering or was leaking secrets to Chinese intelligence. Which is obviously not the charge. So WTF is going on??
"It is UNPRECEDENTED that a lawyer can be named in an FIR for providing legal defence to a client. Every entity is entitled to a legal defence & lawyers cannot be charged no matter what the accusations against their client company are. Delhi Police has clearly filed a frivolous FIR against NewsClick which has no merits and has purely been done out of the vendetta of Modi & Shah. Invoking terror charges has only been done to ensure that the journalists stay in jail as long as possible before they get acquitted because the process is the punishment."
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2023/oct/07/newsclick-case-police-fir-names-lawyer-gautam-bhatia-cites-his-legal-defence-for-xiaomi-and-vivo-2621765.html
“The day that a lawyer can be deterred from taking a brief that he would have normally taken, that is the beginning of a police state,” Hegde told The Telegraph.“This is a testing of the waters by the police. They have not yet named the lawyer as an accused. He has only been named as a ‘key person’ right now."
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/supreme-court-advocate-sanjay-hegde-sounds-police-state-alarm-over-newsclick-fir/cid/1972032
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/not-a-penny-has-come-from-china-newsclick-founder-prabir-purkayastha-tells-delhi-high-court-4464601
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ed-arrests-4-vivo-executives-in-money-laundering-case/articleshow/104313709.cms?from=mdr