New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday conducted searches at the office of The Wire and the homes of four of its editors.
The homes of Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia and Jahnavi Sen were raided by police after a complaint by the BJP’s Amit Malviya accusing them of cheating and forgery.
The police reportedly seized their phones and laptops.
Malviya in his complaint alleges that The Wire “forged documents to malign and tarnish” his reputation.
The Wire recently retracted a series of investigative reports that claimed that Meta, the parent company of social media giants WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, had given certain privileges to Mr Malviya, which he could use to take down posts that he thought were critical of the BJP.
“The police came around 4.40 pm and left at 6 pm. They said they have come here on behalf of Delhi Police Crime Branch for the FIR filed by Amit Malviya. They have taken my iPhone and iPad for cloning,” Scroll quoted MK Venu as saying.
The searches at the homes of Varadarajan and Sen took place around the same time.
The search at Bhatia’s home started around 7.30 pm. At 9.20 pm, the search was still underway at the office of The Wire at Delhi’s Gole Market area.
“We are fully cooperating with them. We have given them the devices and passwords they asked for. They have taken four devices – one MacBook, two iPhones and one iPad,” Varadarajan was quoted by the news website.