On Saturday, a Delhi court issued an order for the release of electronic devices belonging to the editors of The Wire, which were seized by the Delhi Police in October 2022 in connection with its investigation into the first information report (FIR) filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya. The Wire's founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu, as well as editors Sidharth Bhatia, Jahnavi Sen, and product-cum-business head Mithun Kidambi, had approached the Court seeking the release of their devices. The Court observed that the devices had been in the possession of the police for a considerable period of time and that there was no reasonable basis for retaining them any longer.
The Court stated that the devices had already been examined by the FSL, and their mirror images were available with the FSL for any subsequent investigation. The Court dismissed the Investigating Officer's argument that the devices might be required again for some subsequent investigation.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Siddhartha Malik of Tis Hazari Courts stated that the argument presented is speculative in nature, as it is based on the assumption that new information may arise in the future, which may or may not occur.
"The devices belonging to the accused individuals cannot be indefinitely retained by the investigating officer solely based on the speculation of an uncertain future event or discovery," the Court declared.
Consequently, the judge ordered the police to release the devices within a period of 15 days.
Furthermore, the Court scheduled the case for the submission of a compliance report on October 21.
The Delhi Police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against The Wire and its editors following a complaint lodged by BJP IT cell Chief Amit Malviya.
Malviya had filed the complaint in response to The Wire's articles alleging that he possessed a special privilege on Meta platforms, enabling him to have any story removed if he deemed it detrimental to the interests of the BJP.
Subsequently, the articles were retracted.
In turn, the news website filed a complaint against its former consultant, Devesh Kumar.
The Wire claimed that Kumar had "fabricated and provided documents, emails, and other materials, including videos, with the intention of damaging its reputation. He did so either independently or at the direction of unidentified individuals."
TAGS: DELHI HIGH COURT POLICE DELHI POLICE THE WIRE INVESTIGATION BJP AMIT MALVIYA COURT TIS HAZARI COURT DEVICES
