'Delhi Riots 2020' authors file police complaint against former publisher Bloomsbury India, writer William Dalrymple and others

The writers of Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story — the subject of a recent social media uproar that led to publishing house Bloomsbury India dropping the book — have filed a police complaint against writers Meena Kandasamy, Aatish Taseer and William Dalrymple, among others, The Free Press Journal reported .

Also named in the complaint are Bloomsbury India, media organisations The Quint and Newslaundry, and journalist Saket Gokhale. The complaint charges Bloomsbury India with “expunging the work and efforts of the writers, and without their knowledge or consent, leaking a PDF version of the book in public”, while accusing Kandasamy and others of “offences of criminal intimidation and statements creating and promoting enmity, hatred, and ill will”.

Siddharth Varadarajan — founder of The Wire and the husband of sociologist Nandini Sundar, one of the individuals named in the complaint — tweeted a copy of the plaint as submitted to Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava:

Monika Arora et al. defame @nandinisundar in their Delhi Riots book. She sends legal notice. So they file absurd complaint against her for not taking "appropriate legal measures" to "bring it to notice of the authorities" that stolen copies of their book are circulating online! pic.twitter.com/HKADViVXEo

— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) September 3, 2020

The row began with an announcement for the launch event of the book, which featured BJP politician Kapil Mishra among the panel of speakers. Mishra’s speeches had preceded the February 2020 riots in the capital in which over 50 individuals are believed to have lost their lives.

Also read: What the Bloomsbury India-Delhi Riots 2020 fracas highlights about the pernicious cynicism in Indian publishing

Prominent voices — including Kandasamy, actress Swara Bhasker and several others — called out Bloomsbury India for publishing the book authored by Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. Arora had described her book on Twitter as an account of “how Jehadi-Naxal lobby planned and executed Delhi riots [sic>”.

Publishers Bloomsbury India initially stated that the launch events had not been organised with their knowledge, and later withdrew the book, citing a “deep sense of responsibility towards society”.

Delhi Riots 2020 was then  picked up by Garuda Prakashan for publication. Three authors — Sanjeev Sanyal, Sanjay Dixit and Anand Ranganathan —  severed ties with Bloomsbury India to protest the withdrawal.