Cops file FIR against ‘The Wire’ on BJP IT cell chief’s complaint

The Wire has said it is carrying out an internal investigation and is yet to disclose any further details.

The Delhi Police on Saturday registered a first information report (FIR) against news portal The Wire and four of its journalist on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party’s information and technology cell head Amit Malviya accusing them of “cheating” and “forgery”, officers familiar with the matter said.

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The FIR has been filed by the crime branch of the Delhi police under sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for harming reputation), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 500 (defamation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), officers said.

The four senior journalists named in the FIR are Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia and Jahnavi Sen, a Delhi Police spokesperson said.

Malviya, in his complaint to the police, said that the news portal in a report published on October 10 claimed that he was part of a special group called ‘X Check-List on Meta’.

The report claimed that the group allowed Malviya special privileges to take down content on its Instagram service, he said in his complaint, adding that the report blamed him for using these privileges to take down at least 705 posts.

“…As per the report, persons with X Check privileges are provided with the direct authority to take down posts on Meta platforms. Pursuant to this report dated October 10, a series of forged and fabricated several documents were being created and published by accused persons along with other unknown persons to defame and cause harm to the reputation of myself and BJP,” Malviya said in his complaint.

HT has seen a copy of the complaint.

Malviya also said that this was not the first time that The Wire had published a fake story.

Varadarajan, The Wire’s founding editor, and other journalists named in the FIR did not respond to HT’s request for comment.

The FIR is the latest in the controversy that broke out on October 10, when The Wire published its story with the allegations against Malviya and the social media giant. The news outlet took the story down on October 23 and issued an apology on October 27.

“My role requires me to vociferously advocate the BJP’s point of view on national issues across platforms... However, The Wire’s stories have vitiated the atmosphere and severely dented relationships and trust built over years in order for me to carry out the functions of my responsibility,” Malviya said in a statement earlier, adding that he was “left with no option other than to seek appropriate legal remedies against The Wire and its management/reporters.”

The Wire, shortly after Malviya first made his intention to pursue criminal and civil charges known on Thursday, said its journalists rely on sources for stories and “do their best to verify material they receive”.

The Wire has said it is carrying out an internal investigation and is yet to disclose any further details.

At the heart of the controversy was the takedown of a video involving BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath shared on Instagram. The video was reportedly taken down, with The Wire claiming it was done so since Malviya had reported it using the service’s content reporting tools.