Delhi court issues fresh bailable warrants against Dhruv Rathee in 2018 defamation case

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday issued fresh bailable warrants against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a defamation case dating back to 2018.

Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrants in a complaint filed by Vikas Sanskrityayan, also known as Vikas Pandey, who accused Rathee of defamation over a video uploaded on his YouTube channel. The detailed court order is awaited.

The latest action follows the court's October 17 order issuing bailable warrants after a process server reported that Rathee's residence in Gurugram was locked while attempting to serve a summons notice. The court had also directed that fresh summons be issued to him at the Gurugram address.

During the proceedings, advocate Samaksh Sharma, appearing for Pandey, submitted that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had come to India to attend the Cockroach Janata Party protests in Delhi.

The court noted that Rathee had first been summoned in July 2019. The complaint was filed in 2018 after Rathee uploaded a video concerning Pandey on his YouTube channel.

The video, titled 'BJP IT Cell Part 2', alleged that members of the BJP IT Cell had attempted to bribe Pandey to defame Rathee. Pandey subsequently initiated defamation proceedings against Rathee. The video was also shared by then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was named in the related proceedings