New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday issued bailable warrants against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case filed by a BJP IT Cell member, after a process server reported that Rathee’s house was locked while attempting to serve him a summons.
Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrants in the case filed by Vikas Pandey, who accused Rathee of defamation over a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
The petition alleged that Rathee's video titled 'BJP IT Cell Part II' raised false allegations against him.
The detailed order is awaited. The court has scheduled the next hearing for October 31.
The development comes days after the court issued fresh summons to Rathee on October 12, noting that the complainant had been trying to serve him for several years. The court directed that the summons be sent to Rathee’s residence in Gurugram, Haryana.
Appearing for Pandey, advocate Samaksh Sharma had submitted that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had travelled to India to attend the Cockroach Janata Party’s protests in Delhi. However, Rathee’s social media posts revealed that he had already left India and reached London.
The court noted that Rathee was first summoned in July 2019.