The 73-year-old online publisher, Prabir Purkayastha, and the 67-year old award winning author, Githa Hariharan, have been held for around 60 hours at their Saket home as Enforcement Directorate officials continued their “search and survey” of premises associated with the news portal, NewsClick.

Hariharan owns shares in PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt Ltd that owns the website and runs the Indian Cultural Forum on the NewsClick premises.

An email and a WhatsApp message from this newspaper to ED director Sanjay Kumar Mishra asking whether this was a record duration for a raid by an agency of the finance ministry, among other details, have failed to elicit any response.

Sources who witnessed the searches in at least six locations in the national capital have confirmed that bank and investment documents, tax returns, email history caches, mobile phones, computers, hard disks — tools of journalism, including contacts of sources, and tools to manage finances — have been taken.

Besides Purkayastha’s home and the offices of NewsClick and its sister concerns located on two floors of a narrow building in south Delhi’s Said-ul-Ajaib, the homes of editor Pranjal Pandey, HR head Amit Chakraborty, technology columnist Bappaditya Sinha and an employee named Shekhar have been searched.

ED officials left the portal’s office, and restored the freedom of movement of everyone, besides Purkayastha and Hariharan, late on Wednesday night.

Many unions, clubs and guilds of journalists from India and abroad have condemned the raids. The website has been hailed by trade unions and farmer groups who have termed the raids as a return of the Emergency.

A statement by the Indian Women’s Press Corps on Thursday condemning the raids said: “The IWPC believes that in a country, in which freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, the expression of views divergent from that of the establishment are an essential part of a vibrant democracy and cannot be muzzled. Raids or charges of sedition cannot be used to shape and coerce the media and shut down those who differ. The Indian media is far too large and diverse to be intimidated by these messages of fear.”

NewsClick’s website continues to function with reporters working from their homes, filing reports and uploading them.