Delhi Police raids residential premises of editors of The Wire

The Delhi Police carried out searches late on Monday at the homes of The Wire editors Siddharth Varadarajan, M.K. Venu, Sidharth Bhatia and Jahnavi Sen, said sources.

This followed a complaint filed by BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya.

The raids took place two days after the police filed an FIR against the news portal after the BJP leader accused it of forging documents “with a view to malign and tarnish my reputation”. The FIR has been registered under Sections 420, 468, 469, 471, 500 r/w 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

News agency ANI tweeted that the police seized electronic devices including mobile phones and laptops from both Varadarajan and Venu's homes.

“No notice has been given to anyone and no inquiry has taken place today. Further investigation is going on and necessary steps will be taken,” a police official told the news agency.

Malviya had earlier filed a case against The Wire for a series of stories, which have since been retracted, that insinuated that the BJP leader enjoyed the privilege on Meta platforms of having any post taken down which he believed was against the BJP's interests.

Though The Wire has apologised to readers and withdrawn the stories as questions, including from experts, mounted over their veracity, the BJP leader noted that it has refrained from apologising to him.

He has alleged that the news portal indulged in "maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career".