The Wire is a victim of criminal fraud by Devesh Kumar. it is not clear whether he was acting on his own or as part of a larger conspiracy. It is interesting that he was not named in Malviya's complaint and FIR. The sequence of events is as follows
On October 6, 2022, The Wire published a story about an abrupt take down of a post on Instagram based on an email received from the concerned account holder.
Thereafter, Devesh Kumar, got in touch with Jahnavi Sen and told her that he had received information from a personal friend of his who is a senior executive at Instagram’s office in Singapore named Philip Chua. He forwarded an email he claimed to have received from Philip Chua
He also sent a ‘Post Incident Review Report’. Both the email and Report stated that the take down was on the basis of a complaint by Amit Malviya. At this point there was no reason to suspect fraud.
Wire published a further story on October 11, based on an email Devesh Kumar said he had received from a source in Meta. This source, he said, had forwarded an email from Andy Stone, Head of Communications at Meta, which he had confirmed from the headers to be authentic.
Two further stories on October 15 and 17 were also all based on electronic documentation including emails and videos provided by Devesh Kumar, purportedly from Instagram and Meta, the parent company of Instagram, and two independent experts.
It is when both experts wrote to SV saying they had not written the emails, that the Wire started its review and retracted the stories. Devesh has admitted to a Wire staffer that he fabricated everything.
Devesh did not take a byline for the story saying the takedown was at Malviya's behest as he said the 'Instagram source' ('Chua') could be traced back to him as they had communicated by email in the past
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