New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday issued bailable warrants against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in a 2018 defamation case filed by a BJP IT Cell member, after a process server reported that his house was locked while attempting to serve a summons.

Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain issued the warrants in the case filed by Vikas Pandey, who accused Rathee of defamation over a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

The detailed order is awaited. The court has scheduled the next hearing for October 31.

The development comes days after the court issued fresh summons to Rathee on October 12, noting that the complainant had been trying to serve him for several years. The court directed that fresh summons be issued to Rathee at his residence in Gurugram, Haryana.

Appearing for Pandey, advocate Samaksh Sharma had submitted that Rathee ordinarily resides in Austria and had travelled to India to participate in the Cockroach Janata Party's protests in Delhi.

The court noted that Rathee was initially summoned in July 2019.