Police question The Wire’s ex-researcher Devesh Kumar

Three days ago, police had conducted searches at The Wire's office and at homes of its founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, and deputy editor Jahnavi Sen.

Searches were also conducted at Devesh Kumar’s house in Bihar, and his phone and laptop were seized.

The Delhi Police on Thursday questioned The Wire’s former researcher, Devesh Kumar, in connection with the case lodged on the complaint of BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya against the news portal.

Three days ago, police had conducted searches at The Wire‘s office and at homes of its founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, and deputy editor Jahnavi Sen.

Searches were also conducted at Devesh Kumar’s house in Bihar, and his phone and laptop were seized.

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Last week, Malviya had lodged a complaint against the portal and its journalists for “tarnishing” his “reputation” with the now-retracted reports on how tech giant Meta had given Malviya special privileges under its Xcheck programme to remove posts critical of the government.

On Thursday, Devesh Kumar reached the Crime Branch office at 1 pm and was questioned for nearly seven hours.

He was asked about the reports, sources and allegations levelled against him by Malviya and Varadarajan, it is learnt.

Sources said Devesh was also questioned in connection with his Tek Fog app report on The Wire, which too has been retracted.

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