A Delhi court has issued a bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case filed by a BJP IT Cell member.
Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrant after a process server reported that Rathee’s residence was found locked during an attempt to serve him the court summons. The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 31.
The complainant, Vikas Pandey, had recently approached the court seeking the expeditious service of court processes. Following his plea, the court issued summons to Rathee.
Pandey’s counsel also submitted that previous attempts to serve notice on the YouTuber had remained unsuccessful for several years, as he primarily resides abroad.
The case stems from a video uploaded by Rathee in 2018, in which he allegedly claimed that members of the BJP’s IT Cell had attempted to bribe Pandey to defame him. Rathee also shared the video on his X account, which was subsequently retweeted by Arvind Kejriwal, who was then the Delhi Chief Minister.
Following the incident, Pandey initiated defamation proceedings against both Rathee and Kejriwal.
Rathee was recently in India to attend the Cockroach Janata Party’s protest against the Election Commission. He was briefly detained by Delhi Police at his residence in Gurugram ahead of the outfit’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar.
In a new post on X, Rathee said he had reached London and also called for a protest outside the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square on Sunday.
“International danka bajane ka time aa gaya hai,” he wrote, urging people to join the protest at noon on Sunday.
