Delhi court issues fresh warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in 2018 defamation case

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday issued a fresh bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in an eight-year-old criminal defamation case filed by Vikas Pandey.

The Saket court passed the order, stating that the new warrant will be issued at his Gurugram address.

The court had issued a bailable warrant against the YouTuber on October 17, after being informed that previous summons issued to Rathee could not be served as the premises of his residence were found locked, following an order passed earlier this month.

However, the October 17 warrant also could not be served on Rathee as the court observed that it had been issued to an incorrect address in Austria.

The Saket court was, on Saturday, informed that Rathee had already left India.

The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for November 23.

The case pertains to a video titled 'BJP IT Cell Part 2', which allegedly defamed Pandey.

The video was also retweeted by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal in 2018, who later acknowledged before the Supreme Court that he had made a mistake by retweeting it.

Pandey, the founder of the social media page 'I Support Narendra Modi', had claimed that the retweet had tarnished his reputation.

The proceedings against Rathee had remained pending amid repeated difficulties in serving summons on him since 2019, with the complainant claiming that his continued absence from India had delayed the case.

Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria.

The matter had also reached the Supreme Court in connection with Kejriwal's challenge to the criminal defamation proceedings arising from the retweet.

In February 2024, Kejriwal told the apex court that he had made a mistake by sharing the video. A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, who later became Chief Justice of India (CJI) and has since retired, and Dipankar Datta had stayed the trial court proceedings against Kejriwal while hearing his plea challenging the Delhi High Court's refusal to quash the summons issued against him.

The Delhi High Court had earlier upheld the summoning order, observing that retweeting allegedly defamatory content could attract prosecution under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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