Starting as a conflict on social media, the matter has now taken a legal turn, with BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia instituting a suit for ₹2 crore in defamation against the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and the leaders of the party.
How did the conflict on social media start?
The conflict started after a post by Saurav Das on X on September 5. In the post, there was an AI-generated poster that linked a remark against right-wing social media influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj to Bhatia. According to the poster, Bhatia had referred to Bhardwaj as a “dimagi naxal.” Bhatia rejected this claim and said that the poster was linking Bhatia with a remark that he has never made. Bhatia asked Das to remove the post and give an unconditional apology.
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Bhatia seeks legal remedy over alleged defamation
After the social media dialogue could not resolve the issue, Bhatia approached the court to solve his problem. According to his complaint, CJP leaders have done much more than simply criticize his opinion. He claims that the defendants put his opinions into words that he has never uttered and circulated them along with his picture. Bhatia has also filed for a permanent injunction against the publication of such defamatory matter by the defendants. The case is known as Gaurav Bhatia v. Saurav Das & Ors. Bhatia says that the issue will now be resolved based on facts, evidence, and law rather than social media discussion.
Saurav Das Reacts to the Legal Proceedings
In response to the development, Das made an ironic post on X. Following the announcement of the case by Bhatia, Das said, “Hilte dulte Greater Noida court matt poch jana!”, making fun of Bhatia. In this way, Das continues the fight despite it moving into the process of litigation. It may be recalled that Das had previously admitted the AI origin of the graphic in question.