Independent news website The Wire on Sunday, October 30, filed a police complaint against its former consultant Devesh Kumar. The complaint is in connection with a series of articles against global social media conglomerate Meta and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to the complaint, Devesh is accused of providing false and fabricated evidence, based on which the stories were reported. The news portal filed the complaint late on Saturday through e-mail and no FIR has been registered so far.
“On October 6, 2022, The Wire published a story about an abrupt take down of a post on Instagram based on an email we received from the concerned account holder, which is a matter of record,” the complaint said. Later, Devesh — who had “nothing to do with the story — contacted the reporter claiming that he possessed information from a personal friend working at Instagram’s Singapore office, one Philip Chua. Devesh had furnished a purported email from Chua and a ‘Post Incident Review Report’, using which The Wire published a story on October 10. It was later found that no person named Philip Chua existed, and that Devesh had fabricated the email and the report.
The Wire also published three other stories based on “inputs” from Devesh’s purported sources — on October 11, 15 and 17 — which turned out to be fabricated as well. “It is clear to us that Devesh Kumar has a malintent towards The Wire and its editors and staff and has fabricated and supplied documents, emails and other material such as videos with a view to damaging The Wire and its reputation. He has done so either on his own or at the behest of other unknown persons,” the complaint stated.
The Wire had published a series of articles against Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The Wire’s investigation claimed that Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP’s IT Cell, holds special privileges on the social media platforms through the controversial XCheck programme. However, after doubts arose among readers and experts regarding the veracity of the reports, on October 18, The Wire announced that it would be conducting an internal review of its coverage of Meta. Further, the news organization also took down its reports on Tek Fog — an app alleged to have been used by BJP workers to manipulate social media — as the same technical team behind the Meta stories were involved in it.
Later on October 23, The Wire retracted its Meta stories. It said, “Given the discrepancies that have come to our attention via our review so far, The Wire will also conduct a thorough review of previous reporting done by the technical team involved in our Meta coverage, and remove the stories from public view till that process is complete.”
On October 27, the complainant stated that Devesh had called The Wire’s Product and Business Head Mithun Kidambi, and had confessed to fabricating the evidence. “The impression Kidambi gathered was that Devesh Kumar seemed highly disturbed mentally,” the complaint added.
“In the circumstances, we request you to investigate this matter urgently and take action as per law. Please also investigate whether other persons have colluded with Devesh Kumar and add them to the array of witnesses in that case,” the complaint said.
On Saturday, the Delhi Police had filed an FIR against The Wire and its editors based on a complaint by BJP’s Amit Malviya, who accused them of “cheating and forgery” and “tarnishing” his reputation. A day earlier, Malviya said that 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.
The Wire, in a statement on Thursday, said that 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.