BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya on Saturday filed an FIR for forgery, cheating, harming reputation, defamation, criminal conspiracy with the Delhi Police against ‘The Wire’ days after he alleged the news portal “forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish” his reputation.
The Wire retracted a series of its investigative reports claiming Meta, the parent company of social media giants, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, had accorded special privileges to Amit Malviya that enabled him to get posts removed from its platforms.
The BJP leader filed a criminal complaint with Delhi Police Special CP against ‘The Wire’ founder Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor Sidharth Bhatia, editor MK Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, Foundation for Independent Journalism and other unknown persons for the offence punishable under 420, 468, 469, 471, 500 г/w 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Malviya had on Friday said he will pursue legal proceedings against The Wire over stories, since retracted, that alleged the BJP leader colluded with the social media giant in “removing content deemed unfavourable to the party,” according to a Firstpost report.
Addressing the allegations, he said, “As per the report this status had bestowed on me the following powers overriding any filters, algorithms, vetting, verification or any other checks and balances within the company.”
The BJP leader said that the report even cited alleged internal correspondence of Meta to justify its claims, “alleging I had used said privileges to take down a total of 705 posts to date.”
The Wire in a statement on Thursday had said journalists rely on sources for stories and do their best to verify the 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.
‘The Wire’ apologised to readers and withdrew the stories amidst questions over the report’s veracity including that from the Editors Guild of India. The Guild in a statement urged newsrooms to “resist the temptation of moving fast on sensitive stories.”
However, the BJP leader noted that the portal has refrained from apologising to him despite “maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career”.
The BJP IT cell head 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. This also undermines the democratic and informed choices that the public makes, through a carefully calibrated campaign of disinformation and calumny, and does irreparable harm to the democratic right of dissent.”
The BJP leader said he was left with “no option” other than to seek legal actions against the news portal, its management and reporters. “I will lodge an FIR with concerned police station under sections that deal with forgery, forgery for the purposes of cheating, forgery for the purposes of harming reputation, defamation, cheating and criminal conspiracy among others. Additionally, I will also initiate appropriate civil action for damages against ‘The Wire’ and its associates,” Malviya had said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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