Delhi court on Oct 12, 2026 served a fresh summons to YouTuber Dhruv Rathee at his Gurugram residence, propelling a 2018 criminal defamation case filed by Vikas Pandey over a video titled "BJP IT Cell Part 2".
Pandey, who runs the "I Support Narendra Modi" page, alleged that Rathee’s clip claimed he was part of the BJP’s IT cell and had offered Rs 50 lakh to Mahavir Prasad through a middleman to silence reporters.
Rathee, who usually lives in Austria, was detained on Oct 10 by 50 police officers at Sector 56, supposedly to prevent him from joining the Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar, which demands the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The summons follows the court’s order to serve a new notice, a move advocated by Advocate Samaksh Sharma to ensure timely service. The next hearing is set for Oct 17, with Delhi Police yet to respond to Rathee’s allegations of surveillance.
For a Gurugram shopkeeper, the protests have meant lost sales; one vendor, Meera Patel, said her stall saw a 30% drop in footfall during the two‑week period.
While the case against Rathee proceeds, a parallel Supreme Court stay halted proceedings against former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had retweeted the same video in 2018.