Devesh Kumar, The Wire’s technical specialist who played a major role in the Tek Fog and Meta articles that were brought down when they were discovered to be based on forged documents, arrived today at the Delhi crime branch office for interrogation.
#BreakingNews | Fmr. employee of #TheWire, Devesh Kumar, at #Delhi crime branch office after BJP IT Cell head #AmitMalviya‘s complaint@AnvitSrivastava brings you details | Join the broadcast with @ridhimb#Meta pic.twitter.com/lde7Np375q
— News18 (@CNNnews18) November 3, 2022
This comes after Amit Malviya filed a case with Delhi Police on October 29 against The Wire, its editors, and reporters, alleging that they published a series of pieces with the goal to harm his image. Devesh Kumar was not named in the complaint by Malviya but was named in a separate complaint filed by The Wire.
Based on his allegation, an FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with the aim to cheat), 469 (forgery to injure reputation), 471 (using forged document), 500 (defamation), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 34 (common intention).
The Wire files complaint against its former employee
On October 29, The Wire filed a complaint at the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police against its former employee and so-called ‘researcher’ Devesh Kumar, claiming he provided forged documents with “an intent to malign The Wire’s reputation.”
Furthermore, it was noted by The Wire in its complaint that Devesh named Philip Chua, APAC Head of Public Policy at Instagram as the person who provided him with a ‘Post Incident Review Report’ that had pointed fingers at Bharatiya Janata Party’s Amit Malviya as the person responsible for the post takedown.
Devesh seemed ‘highly disturbed mentally’, claims The Wire, Devesh denies
The Wire said in their complaint that when they tried to contact Devesh following an internal investigation and evaluation of his work by “reputed” outside sources, he did not answer. However, he called The Wire’s Product and Business Head Mithun Kidambi on October 27 and “confessed to fabricating all the material” that The Wire used in its Meta stories. “The impression Kidambi gathered was that Devesh Kumar seemed highly disturbed mentally,” claimed The Wire. However, Devesh Kumar has denied he is not mentally disturbed and said he did not appreciate the kind of language used for him by The Wire.
