New Delhi, Oct 29,2022: BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya on Saturday filed a criminal complaint against news and opinion website ‘The Wire’ and its senior editors with the Special Commissioner of Delhi Police, alleging that the portal “forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish his reputation”.

The complaint has been filed against ‘The Wire’ founder Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor Sidharth Bhatia, editor M.K. Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, Foundation for Independent Journalism and other unknown persons for offence punishable under Sections 420, 468, 469, 471, 500 r/w 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

On Thursday, Malviya had said that he will file a case against ‘The Wire’, claiming that the media outlet tried to tarnish his image and reputation.

“After consultation with my lawyers and seeking their advise, 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,” Malviya had said in a statement.

‘The Wire’ had in a series of reports alleged that Malviya had certain privileges to take down posts from Meta-owned Instagram, a claim which was later denied by Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.

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