Delhi Police Monday raided the houses of ‘The Wire’ founders Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, and staffer Jahnavi Sen in connection with the FIR filed against the publication for its malicious Meta reportage against BJP leader Amit Malviya.
Delhi Police Crime Branch searches underway at The Wire's founder Siddharth Varadarajan's residence: Delhi Police
— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2022
Delhi Police registered FIR against 'The Wire' after BJP's Amit Malviya's complaint alleging it "forged documents with a view to malign & tarnish my reputation."
Earlier last week, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya filed a criminal complaint against The Wire and its editorial team for their now-withdrawn Meta reports against him. The complaint was filed with The Special Commissioner of Police – Crime, of the Delhi Police. Amit Malviya has said The Wire falsified papers in an effort to slander and damage his reputation.
“The police came at around 4.40 pm and left at 6 pm. They said they have come here on behalf of the Delhi Police Crime Branch for the FIR filed by Amit Malviya. They have taken my iPhone and iPad for cloning,” MK Venu was quoted as saying by Scroll. He confirmed that raids are underway at Varadarajan’s place too.
The searches are related to a series of now-retracted reports that claimed Meta had granted unprecedented powers to Malviya to remove Instagram posts that he did not like.
However, the allegations did not add up and were countered by several independent researchers who called out The Wire for relying on fabricated evidence to malign Amit Malviya and Meta. Though initially The Wire and its writers stridently defended their stance, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, they were forced to apologise and retract their Meta stories. They eventually also took down their stories on Tek Fog, an app that The Wire had claimed of having superpowers to manipulate social media trends.
Amit Malviya’s FIR against The Wire
Nevertheless, after The Wire retracted its Meta story, Amit Malviya moved to file a complaint against the publication. In his complaint addressed to the special commissioner of police (crime) Delhi, Amit Malviya said, “I am filing the present complaint against The Wire – an online news portal, Mr Siddharth Varadarajan Founding Editor of The Wire, Mr Sidharth Bhatia Founding Editor of The Wire, Mr MK Venu Founding Editor of The Wire, Ms Jahnavi Sen -the Deputy Editor and Executive News Producer at The Wire, Foundation for Independent Journalism the company that owns and publishes The Wire and other unknown persons. I am filing the present complaint for the offences of cheating, forgery for the purpose of cheating, forgery for the purpose of harming the reputation, using as genuine a forged document or electronic record, and defamation amongst other provisions of IPC.”
Amit Malviya added, “I say that this is not the first time that the Accused has published fake news. Recently, the Accused published a story on Tek Fog about a ‘superhuman app’ used by the BJP for SM interception. The said story was used by various national and international media to downgrade India and the thriving democracy of our country. However, subsequently, the Tek Fog story was taken down but The Wire as it was found to be false and fabricated, just as in the present case.”
Citing various pieces of evidence that emerged in the case that proved that The Wire had fabricated several emails and other documents to establish its allegation against Malviya, he said in the complaint, “it is evident that the Accused along with other unknown persons, maliciously fabricated internal emails of Meta so as to vindictively prove their point in order to cause reputational damage to the BJP and myself.”
He noted that after the Meta story was found to be fake, Wire issued an apology to its readers, but is yet to apologise to him. “Shockingly, until this date the accused persons have refrained from issuing an apology addressed to me. This is even despite the fact that their reports and fabricated material have maligned and tarnished my reputation,” he wrote.
“It is apparent that Accused along with other unknown persons entered into a conspiracy with the criminal intent to malign and tarnish my reputation and correspondingly belittle and tarnish the reputation of the BJP. As a part of the conspiracy, the Accused also fabricated and forged internal emails of a private limited company with a dishonest and fraudulent intention to hoodwink their readers and the public at large,” Malviya has written in the complaint.
