The Wire files police complaint against ex-consultant over 'fabricated' Meta story inputs

News portal 'The Wire' has filed a police complaint against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with a now retracted story related to BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

The news portal filed the complaint late on Saturday through e-mail and no FIR has been registered so far, the official said.

The complaint, a copy of which has been obtained by PTI, alleged that Kumar has a "malintent" towards The Wire, its editors, and staff and has "fabricated and supplied documents, e-mails and other material such as videos with a view to damage its reputation. He has done so either on his own or at the behest of other unknown persons".

The complaint has also claimed that according to a review by The Wire, Kumar had "supplied fabricated material, including the documents and e-mails and videos from Instagram and Meta".

On Saturday, the Delhi Police had filed an FIR against 'The Wire' and its editors based on a complaint by Malviya, who accused them of "cheating and forgery" and "tarnishing" his reputation.

"A case has been filed. Investigation will be initiated and necessary action will be taken," the officer had said.

Malviya had on Friday said he will pursue criminal and civil proceedings against the portal over stories, since retracted, which insinuated that he enjoyed a special privilege on Meta platforms through which he could get any story taken down if he believed it was against the BJP's interests.

Malviya's complaint was filed with Delhi Police's special commissioner (crime) against The Wire, its founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, the Foundation for Independent Journalism and some unknown people.

The complaint was filed for various offences punishable under sections 420 (cheating), 468 and 469 (forgery), 471 (fraud), 500 (defamation) r/w 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal act) of the Indian Penal Code.

Though The Wire has apologised to its readers and withdrawn the stories, the BJP leader had noted that the news portal did not offer him an apology despite "maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career".

The Wire, in a statement on Thursday, said journalists rely on sources for stories and do their best to verify 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.