‘Delhi Riots 2020’ author Monika Arora files criminal complaint against Bloomsbury, The Quint, Newslaundry and others

On the charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating, the authors of the famous book ‘Delhi riots 2020’ have accused Bloomsbury and other parties involved of maliciously receiving, retaining and propagating stolen copy of the manuscript of the unpublished book. One of the authors of the “Delhi Riots 2020;The Untold Story” Monika Arora in her complaint with the Delhi Police Commissioner has primarily accused Bloomsbury India over the abrupt withdrawal of the book.

Senior Advocate Monika Arora, one of the authors took to her Twitter handle to share a copy of a police complaint filed against Bloomsbury India and biased digital portals, The Quint and Newslaundry along with leftist activists, Aatish Tasser, Saket Gokhale, Arfa Sherwani, William Dalrymple, Meena Kandaswamy, Nandini Sunder and a few others for the criminal conspiracy and serious charges like cheating, breach of trust, misappropriation of property and mischief under Sections 403, 405, 406, 409, 415, 420, 425, 426 of IPC.

While Bloomsbury India pulled itself back from publishing ‘Delhi Riots 2020’, another publication Garuda Prakashan decided to publish it and authors announced the same over social media, however, the manuscript of the book was allegedly leaked by Bloomsbury before its publication because only the two parties concerned had the manuscript and no one else.

Also, before the manuscript was circulated on WhatsApp, the Left portal – ‘The Quint’ had got access to the manuscript. The Quint had even published a report, where it had tried to ‘fact-check’ the book. In its report, the Quint had also mentioned that the manuscript of the book has been accessed by them.

The authors of the book in the complaint have accused the named parties of maliciously receiving, retaining and propagating stolen copy of the manuscript of the to be published book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’. The PDF version of the yet-to-be-released book was leaked with “an intention to deliberately, willfully with dishonest intentions to expunge my work”, read the complaint submitted to the Delhi Police Commissioner Thursday.

Among other charges, the authors of the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020 -The Untold Story” have accused the parties involved for blackmailing, bullying, pressurizing and conspiring for the withdrawal of the book under a venomous campaign that “emerged on social media especially Twitter when this group of individuals/propagandists widely known as the “Urban Naxal Gang” conspired and went all out to kill the book by pressurizing, intimidating, bullying and blackmailing the Publisher. They even thanked and congratulated one another for being able to put a stop on the release of the book”. The authors have also alleged that Bloomsbury India has not yet returned the copyrighted material to the author.