The homes of editors of news website ‘The Wire’ were searched by the Delhi Police on Monday based on a complaint by BJP’s Amit Malviya.
Electronic devices of Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu were also examined during the search, however, neither of them has been arrested or detained.
This comes after BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya filed a complaint of cheating and forgery against the organisation.
He alleged that the media company “forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish” his reputation.
The complaint has been filed against ‘The Wire’ founder Varadarajan, founding editor Sidharth Bhatia, editor Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, Foundation for Independent Journalism and other unknown persons.
“I am filing the complaint for the offences of cheating, forgery for the purpose of cheating, forgery for the purpose of harming reputation, using forged document or electronic record as genuine, and defamation, among other provisions of IPC (‘The Wire’, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, MK Venu and Jahnavi Sen shall be collectively termed as ‘Accused’),” Malviya stated in his complaint.
Last week on Thursday, Malviya had said that he will file a case against ‘The Wire’ for tarnishing his image and reputation.
“After consultation with my lawyers and seeking their advice, I have decided to file criminal and civil proceedings against ‘The Wire’. Not only will I be setting the criminal process in motion, but I will also sue them in a civil court seeking damages as they forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish my reputation,” Malviya had said in a statement.
‘The Wire’ had, in a series of reports, alleged that Malviya had certain privileges to take down posts from Meta-owned Instagram, a claim later denied by Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.
“The posts in question were surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated,” Meta’s director for policy communications, Andy Stone, had said in a tweet.
Later the post by The Wire were withdrawn and an apology was issued. The media company also filed a case against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with the fabricated story and for misleading the media house.
