Delhi HC asks YouTube journalist to delete video on Ram Rahim over ‘defamation’

The Delhi High Court today directed journalist and YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh to delete his video on Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh – who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for rape – in a defamation case. 

The court permitted him to upload a new video with a disclaimer citing the trial court judgments and a book it was based on, Livelaw reported. 

The court passed the order while hearing Meera’s plea seeking interim relief in the defamation suit. It asked Meera to remove the video from all social media platforms within 24 hours.

The video in question, titled “How Gurmeet Ram Rahim fooled his bhakts?”,  was uploaded by Meera on December 17. The court noted that its content  was based on the trial court’s judgment and quoted passages from a book titled “Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim” by Anurag Tripathi. However, the video did not carry any disclaimer, the court said.

Ram Rahim had sent a legal notice to Singh over the video on December 21, stating the video was “clearly derogatory, disparaging and denigrating”, The Indian Express had reported. The controversial godman had subsequently moved the high court. 

Ram Rahim has been convicted in multiple cases, including the 2017 verdict of 20-year imprisonment for raping two women disciples, life imprisonment in two cases – for the murder of his employee Ranjit Singh and murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.