Sudhir Chaudhary tells Delhi High Court he has removed posts misidentifying CJP protest activist

Journalist Sudhir Chaudhary informed the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that all his posts misidentifying activist Vijay Sherawat as the person who raised slogans of "destroying" Parliament and creating a "Nepal-like situation" in India during the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest have been removed from social media platforms. .Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan made the statement on behalf of Chaudhary and his production company, Essprit Productions, before Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. "I have taken it down on my own. We have taken a conscious decision to take it down...We have also written to social media intermediaries, saying that if any of our posts are there by third parties with you, please take them down also," Krishnan stated. He added that he had no objection if any directions are passed against social media platforms for the removal of the content..Sherawat has sued Chaudhary and DD News over a show aired on the public broadcaster on August 27, when Chaudhary alleged that during the CJP protest, Sherawat was talking about destroying Parliament and creating a Nepal-like situation in India.The suit seeks ₹5 crore in damages..As per the defamation suit, an episode of the programme DECODE, anchored by Chaudhary, identified Sherawat and displayed his image as the person who had raised slogans saying, "Sansad bhawan ukhad diya jayega... Nepal bana diya jayega."Sherawat claims that he did not make the said statement and that it was made by a different and unidentified person at a different event.The suit further alleges that Chaudhary and others carried out no verification before the telecast, gave Sherawat no opportunity to respond and used a low-quality version of available footage so that the two persons could not be distinguished.According to the plaint, within hours of the broadcast, the clip was republished across X and Instagram and the plaintiff received open threats to his life, including threats to shoot him, to behead him and to break his limbs, with one user seeking his home address to carry out the assault.The suit states that Sherawat posted a clarification on his Instagram account on July 31, but his account of approximately 4,224 followers could not match the reach of a national broadcast that claims 1.4 billion digital views..The suit has been filed through Advocates Pushp Sharma, Aditya Narayan Shukla, Jai Allagh and Prasoon Shekhar..When the case was taken up today, Krishnan informed the Court about the removal of the posts. The Bench noted his statement but also questioned Sherawat for his failure to deposit the Court fee. It noted that while nearly ₹4.90 lakh was to be submitted as court fee, Sherawat had only deposited ₹100.Sherawat's lawyer sought some more time to deposit the fee, arguing that he is a student. While the Court initially questioned Sherawat over his failure, it ultimately allowed his plea for an extension of time to deposit the money. Meanwhile, Krishnan submitted that since the posts have been taken down, nothing remains in the matter. However, Sherawat said that they want to continue with the case.The Court said the matter will be heard next in January.