The Saket Court in Delhi has summoned YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and others in a defamation complaint filed by Suresh Karamshi Nakhua, a spokesperson for the Bhartiya Janata Party Mumbai unit, for allegedly referring to him as a violent and aggressive troll.
In an order dated July 19, 2024, District Judge Gunjan Gupta issued summons and notice of the application u/o 39 Rule 1 and 2 CPC to Dhruv Rathee and social media intermediaries for August 6, 2024. Advocates Raghav Awasthi and Mukesh Sharma represented the Plaintiff in this matter.
According to the lawsuit, on July 7, 2024, Dhruv Rathee released a video to his YouTube account titled “My Reply to Godi Youtubers | Elvish Yadav | Dhruv Rathee”. As of the date of the captioned case’s filing, the video had received 2,41,85,609 views and more than 2.3 million likes, with the number increasing every minute.
Plaintiff Suresh Karamshi Nakhua asserted that Dhruv Rathee claimed that Prime Minister Modi welcomed violent and abusive trolls such as Ankit Jain, Suresh Nakhua, and Tajinder Bagga at his official residence.
The video in issue has over 24 million views and over 2.3 million likes, and the figure is growing by the minute.
The suit also claimed that because violent tendencies are attributed to the Plaintiff in the aforementioned video for no rhyme or reason, ostensibly in relation to the Prime Minister, who is one of the Plaintiff’s followers, it is clear that the video has the potential to bring the Plaintiff down in the eyes of ordinary people.
Plaintiff also claimed that Dhruv, in a highly provocative and incendiary video that quickly traveled across digital channels, made bold and baseless charges against the Plaintiff.
The sinister goal underlying this film is the baseless implication that the Plaintiff is somehow tied to violent and abusive troll behavior.
Dhruv Rathee’s defamatory words in the video have seriously harmed the Plaintiff’s reputation.
Dhruv Rathee’s false charges have resulted in widespread criticism and derision of the Plaintiff, causing irreparable harm to his personal and professional life, according to the lawsuit.