Updated February 5th, 2024 at 16:19 IST
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | Image:kejriwal
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to quash the criminal defamation case filed against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for re-tweeting a video by Youtuber Dhruv Rathee on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell. The HC said that Kejriwal has a significant following and he did understand the repercussions of retweeting the video. The high court observed that retweeting the defamatory content does amount to defamation.
The video titled ‘BJP IT Cell Part-2’ made by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee created quite a controversy on social media after he made serious allegations against the BJP.
Summon was issued to Arvind Kejriwal in July 2019
Sources said that Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma upheld a trial court order summoning Arvind Kejriwal in the case. It was observed in the court that Kejriwal has a significant following on X and he did understand the repercussions of retweeting the video.
The case was filed by Vikas Sankrityan alias Vikas Pandey who claims to be a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is founder of a social media page supporting PM Modi.
In his video, Dhruv Rathee had said that Pandey is the second-in command of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell and that Pandey had offered Rs 50 lakh through a middleman to one Mahavir Prasad to recant his allegations that the ruling party’s IT cell spreads lies and fake news.
The allegations were made by Prasad in an interview with Rathee. The interview was uploaded by Rathee on his YouTube channel March 10, 2018 under the title ‘BJP IT Cell Insider Interview’.
On May 7, 2018, Rathee uploaded the video titled ‘BJP IT Cell Part 2’ and alleged that Prasad was offered the money. This video was retweeted by Kerjiwal.
Pandey claimed that Kejriwal retweeted the video which contained false and defamatory allegations against him. He said that the Delhi CM is followed by crores of people and by retweeting the video without checking the authenticity of the allegations, he has made it available to a large number of audience at national and international level.
A summon was issued to Kejriwal on July 17, 2019, following which he approached the Sessions Court against the order. However, the court refused to quash the summons.
After the session court’s decision, Kerjiwal approached the High Court challenging the orders of both the Magistrate and Sessions Court.
