BJP IT cell head Malviya files criminal case against The Wire

New Delhi: The chief of the IT cell of BJP, Amit Malviya, filed a criminal complaint against the online news portal 'The Wire' as well as its senior editors before the Special Commissioner of Delhi Police. In the complaint, he alleged that the portal fabricated documents to tarnish his reputation, IANS reported.

The complaint names '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. It alleges offences punishable under Sections 420, 468, 469, 471, 500 r/w 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code against them.

Malviya announced this move on Thursday.

"After consultation with my lawyers and seeking their advice, I have decided to file criminal and civil proceedings against 'The Wire'. Not only will I be setting the criminal process in motion, but I will also sue them in a civil court seeking damages as they forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish my reputation,"

Earlier, 'The Wire' had published a series of reports alleging that Malviya had certain privileges to take down posts from Meta-owned Instagram. However, Meta denied the reports by the portal.

Meta's director for policy communications, Andy Stone, said in a tweet, "The posts in question surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated."