BJP leader and Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia has filed a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court against Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and its leaders Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka.

Bhatia is aggrieved by a post on X Corp (formerly Twitter) published by Das and Ranka on September 05 in the aftermath of arrest of Swatantra Bhardwaj, who is accused of assaulting a teenage CJP protester.

As per the suit, the post in question is an AI generated tweet wherein it has been falsely attributed to him that he described Bhardwaj as “dimagi naxali” and “jaatiwaadi.”

He has contended that both Das and Ranka did not merely engage in criticism, comment or disagreement with any statement actually made by him but have allegedly falsely represented to the public that he made statements which, in fact, he had never made.

The impugned material was accompanied and/or associated with the photograph of the Plaintiff followed by a false/fake statement, thereby creating an unmistakable and false nexus between the Plaintiff and the words/content disseminated by the said Defendants,” the suit contends.

Further, the Rs. 2 crore defamation suit alleges that the CJP and its leaders have been consistently engaged in the practice of making public comments and publications that are calculated to lower the dignity, authority and institutional standing of the judiciary.

Regarding Das, Bhatia has specifically argued that he “recently shot to fame” by attacking Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma for not recusing herself from hearing CBI's challenge to the order discharging AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and others in the liquor policy case.

He has also referred to Das' tweet about incarceration of Umar Khalid, accused in 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case. According to Bhatia, the post goes far beyond fair comment on any specific judicial order or proceeding.

“The Defendant No. 1 (Das), while holding himself out as Chief Spokesperson/Co-convenor of an unregistered collective, has chosen to publicly celebrate and endorse an individual facing serious criminal allegations by declaring the judicial process itself to be permanently stained, thereby demonstrating a propensity to use social-media platforms for institutional denigration,” the suit states.

Further, Bhatia has said that the Defendants, operating under the “banner of an unregistered association that publicly claims to have "no political links" and to be fighting a cause "bigger than any party," systematically utilise social-media platforms to comment upon, criticise and attack the judiciary in a manner that goes beyond fair comment on specific orders and enters the realm of broad institutional aspersion.

“Such conduct is further exemplified by recent publications in which comparisons and analogies of a highly pejorative nature have been drawn involving the judiciary, including content that seeks to equate or juxtapose judicial processes or outcomes with references that are calculated to provoke public outrage and diminish institutional respect,” it adds.

Title: Gaurav Bhatia v. Saurav Das & Ors