Delhi Court Issues Fresh Bailable Warrant Against Dhruv Rathee in 2018 Defamation Case

A Delhi court on Saturday issued a fresh bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case related to a video posted on his YouTube channel titled ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’.

According to a report by Bar and Bench, Judicial Magistrate First Class (South East) Rahul Jain issued the warrant after the court was informed that Rathee’s residence was found locked when an attempt was made to serve an earlier summons notice.

The court has scheduled the next hearing in the matter for October 31. A detailed order is awaited.

The case was filed by Vikas Sanskrityayan, who alleged that Rathee published and circulated a video containing defamatory statements and several false allegations against him, according to Bar and Bench.

Earlier this week, the court issued fresh summons to Rathee after the complainant sought an advancement of the hearing date. The matter had previously been scheduled for November 20.

The complainant sought an earlier hearing on the grounds that Rathee, who reportedly resides abroad, was currently in India to participate in protests concerning Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Advocate Samaksh Sharma, appearing for the complainant, submitted that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had travelled to India to participate in a protest linked to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

The court also noted that Rathee had initially been summoned in the case in 2019, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

The fresh summons were issued on October 12, with directions for them to be served at Rathee’s residence in Gurugram, Haryana. Following the report that the residence was locked during the subsequent service attempt, the court issued the fresh bailable warrant on Saturday.