A Delhi court has issued a fresh bailable warrant against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a criminal defamation case filed by social media activist Vikas Sankrityayan, also known as Vikas Pandey, over a video uploaded in 2018, Bar and Bench reported.
Judicial Magistrate First Class Rahul Jain, presiding over the Saket court, issued the warrant after Rathee failed to appear for the hearing.
According to Bar and Bench, the court noted that an earlier bailable warrant, issued on October 17, could not be executed because it had been sent to an incorrect address in Austria. It subsequently directed that a fresh warrant be issued at Rathee’s address.
However, after being reportedly informed that had already left India, the court questioned the urgency behind issuing the warrant. “Ab itni jaldbazi ka koi logic hai?” the court observed, as per Bar and Bench.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next on November 23.
The case dates back to May 2018, when Rathee uploaded a video on social media alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT cell had attempted to bribe Sankrityayan to malign him.
Sankrityayan subsequently filed a criminal defamation complaint against Rathee, claiming that the allegations in the video were false and had damaged his reputation.
The video was also shared by Arvind Kejriwal, who was then the chief minister of Delhi. Sankrityayan initiated defamation proceedings against both Rathee and Kejriwal.
The case has remained pending since 2018. It is the same matter in which Kejriwal, who had shared the video, subsequently tendered an apology before the Supreme Court.
However, proceedings against Rathee, who originally uploaded the video, continued before the trial court.
The Saket court had issued a bailable warrant against Rathee on October 17 after he failed to appear before it.
However, the warrant could not be executed because it had been sent to an incorrect address in Austria, according to Bar and Bench.
At the October 31 hearing, the court ordered a fresh warrant to be issued at Rathee’s address after being informed about the error.
The proceedings took another turn when the court was informed that Rathee had already left India.
Vikas Sankrityayan, popularly known as Vikas Pandey, is a social media activist associated with the ‘I Support ‘ online group, which supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He is also active on X under the handle @MODIfiedVikas.
According to his Facebook profile, Sankrityayan describes himself as a digital creator and writer from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. His stated areas of interest include social media misuse and fake news.
His X bio identifies him as a software architect associated with IBM India Software Labs. He has also listed his involvement with online groups such as ‘I Support NaMo’ and ‘Hindu IT Cell’.
In a Facebook post, Sankrityayan described himself as one of the early targets of Rathee’s videos and accused the YouTuber of making false claims about him.
“I was one of the first victims of fake news peddler Dhruv Rathee,” he wrote.
