A Delhi court on Saturday issued fresh bailable warrants against YouTuber and social media influencer Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 criminal defamation case after noting that earlier warrants were issued at a wrong address in Austria instead of his Gurugram residence.
Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the fresh warrants against Rathee after the execution of the previous warrants proved unsuccessful.
Appearing for Pandey, advocate Samaksh Sharma had submitted that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had come to India for the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests in Delhi.
The counsel informed the court that he had already left India. The court has now listed the matter for further hearing on November 3.
Case against Rathee was filed by Vikas Sanskrityayan alias Vikas Pandey, who accused the YouTuber of defamation over a video uploaded on his channel.
On October 17, the court had issued bailable warrants against Rathee after a process server reported that his house was locked while attempting to serve notice.
The court had also issued fresh summons to Rathee at his address in Gurugram, Haryana.
The court had noted that Rathee was initially summoned in July 2019.
What's the case?
The criminal defamation complaint was filed by Pandey over the video released in 2018 titled 'BJP IT Cell Part II'. The video was produced and published on his YouTube channel.
In the video, Rathee alleged that the BJP IT Cell members had attempted to bribe Pandey to defame him. Pandey subsequently approached the court, claiming that the allegations were false and were made deliberately to damage his reputation.
The video had gained widespread attention after it was shared on social media by former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Pandey had also filed a case against Kejriwal.
Kejriwal subsequently admitted before the court that sharing the video was a mistake, leading to separate proceedings against him.
However, the original complaint against Rathee, as the creator and publisher of the video, continued before the Saket court.
