Delhi Police raids residences of The Wire co-founders Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu and others

Delhi Police said that it has seized electronic devices (mobiles, laptops) from the residences of Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, and others.

NewsBharati 01-Nov-2022 10:09:35 AM

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New Delhi, Nov 1: Delhi Police Monday raided the houses of ‘The Wire’ founders Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, and staffer Jahnavi Sen. This came in connection with the FIR filed against the publication for its baseless Meta articles published against BJP leader Amit Malviya.

Delhi Police raids residences of The Wire co-founders Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu

Delhi Police said that it has seized electronic devices (mobiles, laptops) from the residences of Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, and others. No notice was given to anyone and no inquiry has taken place today. Further investigation is going on and necessary steps will be taken, added the Delhi Police.

The controversy erupted after The Wire had claimed in its articles that BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya used his special privileges at tech giant Meta to take down over anti-BJP social media posts.

As reported earlier, an FIR was registered by the Delhi Police against The Wire on the basis of BJP leader Amit Malviya's complaint. The Wire had forged documents with "a view to malign and tarnish my reputation," according to the complaint. In FIR names mentioned are The Wire, its founding editors Siddharth Vardarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and MK Venu, and Jahnavi Sen, deputy editor and executive news producer.

Also Read: The Wire puts all the blame against its researcher Devesh Kumar, files complaint against over Meta article

The complaint to Delhi Police had said that "the accused persons have with common intention conspired to maliciously defame the complainant and the BJP by spreading false news to the public". The matter pertains to Meta stories which were "retracted" by The Wire. It retracted the stories after Meta and various other experts pointed out critical flaws in their reporting, however it has not apologised to Amit Malviya.

"However, even while retracting the story, The Wire' refrained from apologizing to me, despite maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career. My role requires me to vociferously advocate the BJP's point of view on national issues, across platforms," he had said.

Also Read: BJP IT head cell Amit Malviya to sue The Wire for 'tarnishing reputation'

The Wire said it is also conducting a comprehensive editorial review of the internal editorial processes "which resulted in the publication of these stories in order to identify and plug any and all shortcomings". However, The so-called liberal news portal has put all the blame on its researcher Devesh Kumar as it has filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police. Besides, the complaint filed by The Wire against Devesh Kumar in the fabrication of documents and forgery.