Delhi Police on Monday searched the residences of Siddharth Varadarajan and M K Venu, the founder and editor of news portal The Wire, following a complaint by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya. The homes of Vadarajan and Venu were searched and their devices were examined, according to reports.
Malviya’s complaint was in connection with The Wire’s report that the former used his special privileges at tech giant Meta to take down over 700 social media posts. The article was subsequently retracted following the objection raised by the BJP leader.
The complaint alleged that the media company "forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish" his reputation.
Police said that they will be checking their devices and collecting evidence in connection with the probe. They also confirmed that no one has been arrested or detained in connection with the case.
On Saturday night, The Wire filed a police complaint against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with the now retracted story related to Malviya.
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The complaint alleged that Kumar has a "malintent" towards The Wire, its editors, and staff and has "fabricated and supplied documents, e-mails and other material such as videos with a view to damage its reputation. He has done so either on his own or at the behest of other unknown persons".
The complaint has also claimed that according to a review by The Wire, Kumar had "supplied fabricated material, including the documents and e-mails and videos from Instagram and Meta".
Malviya had on Friday said he will pursue criminal and civil proceedings against the portal over stories, since retracted, which insinuated that he enjoyed a special privilege on Meta platforms through which he could get any story taken down if he believed it was against the BJP's interests.
Malviya's complaint was filed with Delhi Police's special commissioner (crime) against The Wire, its founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, the Foundation for Independent Journalism and some unknown people.
The complaint was filed for various offences punishable under sections 420 (cheating), 468 and 469 (forgery), 471 (fraud), 500 (defamation) r/w 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal act) of the Indian Penal Code.
Though The Wire has apologised to its readers and withdrawn the stories, the BJP leader had noted that the news portal did not offer him an apology despite "maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career".
The Wire, in a statement on Thursday, said journalists rely on sources for stories and do their best to verify material they receive.
"Technological evidence is more complicated and the usual due diligence may not always reveal the fraud perpetrated upon a publication. This is what happened to us," it said.
