A Delhi court has issued fresh summons to YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a criminal defamation case filed by Vikas Pandey in 2018 over a video titled 'BJP IT Cell Part 2'. Authorities have served the summons at Rathee's residence in Gurugram, where he is currently staying amid protests organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over alleged electoral irregularities.

Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain of the Saket District Court passed the order on October 12. The court has listed the matter for the next hearing on October 17.

Advocate Samaksh Sharma, appearing for Pandey, told the court that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had returned to India to participate in the CJP protests in Delhi. Sharma sought fresh summons to facilitate prompt service on the YouTuber.

The development comes days after police detained Rathee at his Gurugram residence on October 10 to prevent him from participating in a CJP protest at Jantar Mantar. Around 50 police personnel arrived at his home in Sector 56 and took him into custody. Delhi Police described the action as preventive, citing the absence of permission for the protest in Delhi.

The protest centres on alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and demands the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Rathee had participated in a CJP protest in Bengaluru two days before his detention.

In an Instagram video posted on Wednesday, Rathee alleged that plainclothes police personnel in unmarked vehicles followed him after he left his Gurugram residence. He claimed that the police were tracking his movements and threatening to detain him again if he approached the protest site ahead of another planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar on October 16. Delhi Police have not responded to these allegations.

The criminal defamation case dates back to 2018, when Pandey, founder of the social media page 'I Support Narendra Modi', accused Rathee of making defamatory claims in the video. According to Pandey, the video portrayed him as a member of the BJP IT Cell and alleged that he had offered ₹50 lakh through an intermediary to Mahavir Prasad to withdraw allegations that the organisation spread fake news.

Pandey also filed a complaint against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who was then the Delhi Chief Minister, for sharing Rathee's video on X, formerly Twitter, in 2018.

The Delhi High Court refused to quash the summons issued to Kejriwal. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that a Chief Minister's substantial social media following gives a retweet wider reach and can make it a form of public endorsement or acknowledgement.

Kejriwal challenged the High Court's decision before the Supreme Court. On February 26, 2024, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta stayed the trial court proceedings against him. During the hearing, Kejriwal's counsel told the Supreme Court, “I can say this much that I made a mistake by re-tweeting.”

The proceedings against Rathee, however, continued, leading to the fresh summons issued by the Saket court.