Delhi Police Monday searched the residences of The Wire founder and prominent journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, the editor of news website, M K Venu and deputy editor Jahnavi Sen in connection with its reports that BJP IT cell’s Amit Malviya used his special privileges at Meta to take down over 700 social media posts.
The raids took place two days after an FIR was registered against them on charges of cheating, forgery, defamation and criminal conspiracy on the basis of a complaint filed by Malviya.
“The police came around 4.40 pm and left at 6 pmz They said they have come here on behalf of Delhi Police Crime Branch for the FIR filed by Amit Malviya. They have taken my iPhone and iPad for cloning,” Venu told Venu told Scroll.in
“We have given them the devices and passwords they asked for. They have taken four devices – one MacBook, two iPhones and one iPad,” the news website quoted Varadarajan as saying.
Malviya’s complaint relates to a series of articles about social media company Meta. The stories were subsequently retracted, by claiming that it had been deceived by a member of its investigative team. The Wire filed a complaint against researcher Devesh Kumar, who had worked on the Meta articles, claiming that he “fabricated and supplied documents, emails and other material such as videos with a view to damaging The Wire and its reputation.”
