NEW DELHI: YouTuber Dhruv Rathee is dealing with two separate legal cases in Delhi. In the first, a new defamation suit has been filed against him in the Saket court over a video about Lord Ram and Goddess Sita. In the second, a Delhi court has issued fresh summons in a 2018 defamation case filed by BJP IT Cell member Vikas Pandey.
New suit over the Ram-Sita video
The suit is about a video titled “Can Hindus Eat BEEF?”, which allegedly claims that Lord Ram and Goddess Sita ate meat and drank alcohol during their exile. The petitioners, who include Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Amita Sachdeva, call themselves Hindu devotees. They say the video hurt their religious feelings.
Sachdeva said the group first went to the Delhi High Court, which told the Government of India to have the video removed. On July 15, 2026, the government asked YouTube to take it down, and that petition was closed. She claims someone then cut a three-minute clip from the 21-minute video and uploaded it again.
The petitioners went back to the High Court, which allowed them to file a fresh case. They then moved the Saket court, seeking a declaration, an injunction and damages for defamation. They also want the court to stop Google from restoring or sharing the video, or any similar one, while the case continues.
At the first hearing, senior counsel Makarand Natkar joined by video call, but technical problems stopped him from finishing his arguments. The judge moved the matter to November 5.
Fresh summons in the 2018 case
Separately, Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued fresh summons to Rathee in the case filed in 2018 over a video titled “BJP IT Cell Part 2”. In an order dated October 12, the court noted that the complainant had been trying to serve Rathee for several years. The case had been stuck since 2019 because earlier attempts failed.
Pandey’s lawyer, Samaksh Sharma, said Rathee usually lives in Austria and had come to India for the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests in Delhi. He said fresh summons were needed so Rathee could be served quickly. The court allowed “dasti service”, where the complainant can go along with the process server. Reports say Rathee has now been served at his Gurugram home.
Pandey said the case goes back eight years. He claims Rathee made around three videos alleging that he offered Rs 50 lakh to someone to spread fake news. He said Arvind Kejriwal shared the claim on social media, so he filed a case against both men. Kejriwal apologised, but Pandey says Rathee never appeared in court. In February 2024, Kejriwal told the Supreme Court that retweeting the video was a mistake.
Recent detention
The cases come days after Delhi and Gurugram Police detained Rathee at his home in Gurugram on October 10, before a planned CJP protest at Jantar Mantar. He was released after about 22 hours.
The CJP has been demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The protests saw heavy security, barricades and detentions.
