NEW DELHI, Oct 17: A Delhi court on Saturday issued a bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case after a court official reported that he could not serve the summons at Rathee’s residence as the house was locked.
Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrant in a complaint filed by Vikas Pandey, a member of the BJP’s IT cell, who has accused Rathee of defaming him through a video uploaded on his YouTube channel. The court’s detailed order is awaited.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 31.
The development comes days after the court issued fresh summons to Rathee on October 12, observing that the complainant had been attempting to serve him for several years. The court had directed that the summons be sent to Rathee’s residence in Gurugram, Haryana.
According to the complainant’s counsel, Advocate Samaksh Sharma, Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had travelled to India to participate in protests in Delhi against the BJP, which he referred to as the “cockroach Janata Party”.
Rathee was first summoned in the case in July 2019. The latest warrant follows the reported failure to serve the fresh summons at his residence.
The court is scheduled to take up the matter again on October 31.
