A Delhi court has issued summons to YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, Google LLC and X Corp in a defamation suit filed by BJP Mumbai Spokesperson Suresh Karamshi Nakhua.
District Judge Gunjan Gupta of Saket Courts last week issued summons and notice to the defendants, directing them to remain present before the court on August 6.
Nakhua alleged in his defamation case that Rathee referred to him as part of ‘violent and abusive’ trolls in his YouTube video titled ‘My Reply to Godi Youtubers | Elvish Yadav’.
The BJP leader sought Rs 20 lakh damages from Rathee for defamation caused to him on cyber space.
The suit alleged that in the video in question, Rathee claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hosted ‘violent and abusive’ trolls like Ankit Jain, Suresh Nakhua, and Tajinder Bagga at his official residence.
The video received over 24 million views and more than 2.3 million likes, and continued to attract more attention. As a result of Rathee’s allegedly defamatory statements in the video, Nakhua’s reputation has been severely damaged. The false accusations made by Rathee led to widespread condemnation and ridicule of Nakhua, causing irreparable harm to his personal and professional life, it added.
the petitioner contended that Rathee also engaged in committing habitual defamation, giving online threats and deteriorating fellow YouTuber’s career by using his audience, which ran in over 23.3 million subscribers on YouTube and over 2.6 million followers on X platform.
The suit sought to restrain Rathee from tweeting, posting, or creating any content on YouTube or X Corp regarding Nakhua.
the BJP leader was represented by Advocates Raghav Awasthi and Mukesh Sharma.