New Delhi, October 31, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
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 ordered that the fresh warrant be issued at Rathee’s Gurugram address.
The court had issued a bailable warrant against the YouTuber on October 17 after being informed that earlier summons could not be served because his residential premises were found locked.
However, the October 17 warrant also remained unserved after the court found that it had been sent to an incorrect address in Austria.
On Saturday, the Saket court was informed that Rathee had already left India. The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled for November 23.
The case relates 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. Kejriwal later acknowledged before the Supreme Court that he had made a mistake by sharing it.
Pandey, who founded the social media page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’, had alleged that the retweet had damaged his reputation.
Proceedings against Rathee have remained pending amid repeated difficulties in serving summons since 2019. The complainant has maintained that Rathee’s continued absence from India has 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 his retweet.
In February 2024, Kejriwal told the apex court that he had made a mistake by sharing the video. A Bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, who later became Chief Justice of India 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 to 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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