Language Branding Me 'Mentally Unstable' Not Correct, Says Devesh Kumar, Accused By The Wire Of ‘Deceiving’ The Portal

Devesh Kumar, a ‘news contributor’ for controversial Left-leaning news portal The Wire, has reacted to a police complaint by the portal Editor in which he has been called “highly disturbed mentally”. 

“We are all disturbed but the language branding me 'mentally unstable' is not correct at all. I have cooperated with the police fully,” Kumar told Times Now on 2 November.

Watch his statement here (from 4.35 minutes).

Earlier this week, The Wire Editor Siddharth Varadarajan gave a written complaint to Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, New Delhi, asking the police to Investigate Kumar’s role in “deceiving” the portal “with a view to damaging The Wire and its reputation”. 

In the complaint, the portal said that Kumar supplied them fabricated material and, to The Wire’s staff, Kumar “seemed highly disturbed mentally”.

“…Devesh Kumar did call The Wire’s Product and Business Head Mithun Kidambi on the evening of October 27 to confess to fabricating all the material that was used in The Wire’s stories on Instagram and Meta referred to above.

"The impression Kidambi gathered was that Devesh Kumar seemed highly mentally disturbed,” the complaint said.

The complaint came a day after Bharatiya Janata Party’s social media cell head Amit Malviya filed a first information report (FIR) against Varadarajan, the portal’s co-founders Sidharth Bhatia and MK Venu, and deputy editor Jahnavi Sen for maligning his reputation by alleging that he manipulated Instagram.

Timeline of the Wire-Meta fiasco

A report published by The Wire on 10 October claimed that Malviya had special privileges to take down posts through an Instagram programme called X-Check, “no questions asked”. The report was headlined ‘If BJP’s Amit Malviya Reports Your Post, Instagram Will Take It Down – No Questions Asked’ and carried the byline of Jahnavi Sen. 

After publication of this report, Andy Stone, Head of Communications of Meta, which is the parent firm of Instagram, dismissed the story and said it was based on fabricated documents. 

The Wire then published another report on 11 October, headlined ‘Exclusive: 'How the Hell Did Document Leak?' – Meta Internal Mail Belies 'Fabricated' Charge Against The Wire’. The report carried the bylines of Jahnavi Sen and Siddharth Varadarajan.

The report carried a screenshot of a purported mail by Andy Stone.

When Meta officials said the email, too, was fabricated, The Wire published a third report, this time carrying the bylines of Devesh Kumar, Jahnavi Sen and Siddharth Varadarajan, in that order. 

The report was headlined ‘Meta Said Damaging Internal Email Is ‘Fake’, URL ‘Not In Use’, Here’s Evidence They’re Wrong’.

After further loopholes in the reports pointed out by readers and ‘independent witnesses’ quoted in the reports openly turning hostile, The Wire published a statement on 17 October, carrying no byline, and headlined ‘Statement by The Wire on meta’s Responses So Far’. 

The portal’s Twitter caption for the report said, “We are not prepared to play this game any further.”

The next day, that is on 18 October, the portal’s Twitter account posted a statement saying ‘The Wire Intends to Review Its Reporting on Meta’. The statement said the portal was setting up an internal review of all documents and material used in the reports. 

Then, on 23 October, the portal retracted the reports, posting a statement saying, “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.”

Finally, on 27 October, the portal published an apology on the website.

Criticism for throwing Kumar under the bus

Many on social media have criticised The Wire for throwing a news contributor under the bus and maligning his reputation by commenting on his mental health. As shown above, in the first of the three reports on Malviya allegedly manipulating Instagram, Devesh Kumar did not share the byline with reporter Jahnavi Sen or Editor Varadarajan. 

 Speaking to Times Now, Kumar said that his stand on the controversy was the same as that of The Wire - that they were given false documents. He said that he was not named in any FIR and was cooperating with the police.