The controversial news portal ‘The Wire’ is in news again. In latest development in the ‘Meta’ controversy, ‘The Wire’ retracts its report about Amit Malviya. Now, it is blaming its own researcher for the report.
Following an FIR in a case filed by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya against The Wire and the editors for “tarnishing his reputation”, Delhi Police searched residences of news portal The Wire’s founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia, deputy editor Jahnavi Sen and product-cum-business head Mithun Kidambi.
Bhatia is based in Mumbai while the other three live in Delhi. As per reports, police has seized electronic devices from the portal’s New Delhi office as well as the residences.
In all, police had formed five teams for the search operations. Two police teams carried out operations in Maharashtra and one team in Gaya, Bihar. While, the other two teams carried out investigations in Delhi.
However, the police have not questioned or detained anybody so far.
Meanwhile, ‘The Wire’ has issued an official statement.
All five cooperated and gave over the devices sought. The seizure from Kidambi began at 2;30 in the morning and lasted till 5 am. We also placed on record our demand for the hash value of the phones, computers and iPads seized. And for cloned copies of the devices seized to be kept at a neutral place.
The Wire
The hash value is a unique numerical value. Its purpose is to ensure the integrity of a device and its data.
“In spite of this cooperation, The Wire’s office at Bhagat Singh Market in Delhi was also searched and one of our lawyers physically pushed out by the officers at that site. The Crime Branch party then took away the hard disks from the two computers used by our accounts staff, again without mention of any hash value or providing us a cloned copy so that the normal financial work so central to the day-to-day functioning of a media organisation can continue uninterrupted,” it added.
The Wire
The Complaint
Malviya, in his complaint, had alleged that ‘The Wire’ has tarnished his reputation. He was referring to a news report regarding him, published by the news portal. The report was so tardy that the ‘The Wire’ had to retract it. According to the retracted report, Malviya had used his special privileges at tech giant Meta to take down over 700 social media posts.
The Delhi Police has booked them under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with the purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for harming reputation), 471 (using forged document), 500 (defamation), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention).
Complainant Malviya, said, “It is clear that The Wire and some unknown persons entered into a criminal conspiracy with intent to malign and tarnish my reputation, deliberately inserted my name into a story, and fabricated evidence to implicate me. I am left with no option other than to seek legal remedies.”
Wire backs down, retracts statement
In the FIR, Malviya said The Wire news reports had made false claims about him and Meta. ‘The Wire’ alleged that Meta had given certain special privileges to the BJP leader. Consequently, he could take down posts on Instagram and other platforms which are critical of the government or the BJP. The retracted report also alleged that Amit Malviya could post anything without botheration of Instagram rules.
The news portal claimed that its reports were based on a document sourced from a Meta insider. But, Meta has stated that the document is fake.
Following this, The Wire published a series of articles defending the report. It cited what it called “internal emails” of Meta, which have all turned out to be fake. Later, the portal retracted the report and issued an apology to its readers.
Is Devesh Kumar a scapegoat
Vardarajan, a day earlier had even filed a police complaint against their researcher, Devesh Kumar. He has alleged Devesh of fabrication of documents and forgery. Vardarajan is now claiming that the report was based on emails forwarded by Kumar.