New Delhi, 31 October (H.S.): A Delhi court has issued a fresh bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case and directed him to appear before it on November 3. The warrant was issued after Dhruv Rathee failed to appear for the hearing on Saturday.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Rahul Jain of the Saket Court ordered the issuance of the fresh bailable warrant against Dhruv Rathee.

During the hearing, advocate Samaksh Sharma, appearing on behalf of complainant Vikas Pandey, submitted that Dhruv Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had travelled to India to participate in the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests held in Delhi. However, he had since left the country, the lawyer told the court.

Following Dhruv Rathee's non-appearance, the court ordered the issuance of a fresh bailable warrant against him.

Earlier, during the hearing on October 17, the court was informed that fresh summons issued to Dhruv Rathee had been served, but the premises were found locked when officials visited his residence.

An attempt was subsequently made to contact him over the phone, but he allegedly declined to accept the notice. The summons was then affixed outside his residence.

The court had taken note of the fact that Rathee was first summoned in July 2019 and that the complainant had consistently been making efforts to secure the service of summons.

The case arises from a criminal defamation complaint filed by Vikas Sankrityayan, also known as Vikas Pandey, who has alleged that Rathee uploaded and circulated a defamatory video against him.

According to the complainant, Rathee, who was then residing in Germany, uploaded a video titled ‘BJP IT Cell Part 2’ and circulated several allegedly false allegations against him. The video purportedly

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar