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Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law, referring to the raids conducted at the premises connected with online portal NewsClick in Delhi.
“I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, then probe agencies cannot investigate that,” Thakur said.
Delhi Police's Special Cell Tuesday morning conducted raids at 30 premises connected with online portal NewsClick as well as its journalists' houses, triggering outrage against the action among scribes.
“The probe agencies are independent and they work as per the law,” he said in response to queries at a press conference here.
Officials in the know said police have recovered the dump data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick.
Delhi Police sources said the raids are based on a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties have slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre over raids, saying it is "scared" of journalists.
The Congress alleged that the raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick was a "fresh distraction" from the "explosive" findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country".
"When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also slammed the government over the raids.
"Despite an army of sycophants, some journalists still dare to speak the truth.But the Prime Minister has a special problem with those who speak the truth and those who ask questions," she alleged.
"So they will be raided, intimidated, but Saheb forgets that not everyone's spine is missing as is the case with sycophants," Shrinate said in a post in Hindi on X.
The Congress leaders' remarks come a day after the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released findings of its much-awaited caste survey months ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections, which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population.
The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the Modi government is pretending to fight China by arresting its own journalists because it didn't have the courage to engage with it directly.
"There are two types of journalists in the country -- there are those who have surrendered before Modi ji and who are being rewarded every day by Modi ji. And then there are those who are fighting for the country and exposing the shortcomings of the Modi government.
"Modi ji is a coward. He is threatening those journalists by arresting them on ridiculous charges," AAP chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said.
She alleged that China made forays into the Indian territory, yet the central government could not gather courage to snap commercial ties with it.
"China occupied our land, but Modiji did not have the courage to speak a word against China. By arresting these journalists, they are pretending to fight China. If you have the guts, stop all the trade with China.
"Today's action shows that Modiji has failed vis-a-vis the China situation. In the name of fighting China, they conducted raids on some journalists," she said.