The Wire files police complaint against its ex-consultant

New Delhi: Delhi Police have received a complaint from the news website ‘The Wire’ against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with its fabricated story related to BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya.

“The complaint was filed by the news website late Saturday evening through email,” said a senior police official.

Delhi Police on Saturday had registered an FIR against ‘The Wire’ and its senior editors based on a complaint filed by Malviya, alleging that the portal forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish his reputation.

The complaint has been filed against ‘The Wire’ founder Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor Sidharth Bhatia, editor M.K. 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.

On Thursday, Malviya had said that he will file a case against ‘The Wire’, claiming that the media outlet tried to tarnish 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 which was 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.