Gurmeet Ram Rahim seeks takedown of video posted by journalist, Delhi HC issues notice

The court said that notice be served through email and WhatsApp.

The counsel appearing for the Dera Chief said the lawsuit has been filed with respect to a video uploaded on December 17.

The video on YouTube is titled “How Gurmeet Ram Rahim fooled his bhakts?”.

The counsel said a legal notice was sent by his client on December 21 to YouTube and Shyam Meera Singh who uploaded the alleged video. He submitted that the video is “clearly derogatory, disparaging and denigrating”.

“He (Shyam Meera Singh) is a habitual offender… After we put him to notice, he puts out a remark/comment on Twitter (now known as X) saying ‘I’m not going to delete these videos’. Totally defiant. He has been accused by the UP administration also for having insulted the Chief Minister. An FIR came to be registered at the instance of a UP resident,” the counsel said.

The counsel thereafter pointed to a report by The Indian Express from August titled ‘Journalist booked for ‘insulting’ UP CM on Twitter’.

As per the report, the Ghaziabad Police registered an FIR in August against Singh for his alleged objectionable tweet against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Police took the action following a complaint filed by a Sahibabad resident, Chandan Rai, The Indian Express had reported.

“I’m a spiritual head of a sect called ‘Dera Sacha Sauda’ operating from Sirsa. I’m serving imprisonment in respect whereof appeals are pending in the Punjab and Haryana HC. The appeals are coming up for hearing April 30, 2024,” the counsel appearing for the Dera chief said.

In 2017, the Dera chief was sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly raping two women disciples. In 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his employee Ranjit Singh. In 2021. he was sentenced to life imprisonment for another murder — that of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.

The HC thereafter said it shall hear the matter tomorrow.