‘Lives in his own world’: Delhi HC slams Baba Ramdev over new Rooh Afza video

After the Delhi High Court flagged Patanjali founder Ramdev's fresh video for offending comments, the yoga practitioner agreed to take down the 'offensive' parts on Thursday. The HC is set to issue notice for contempt of court for non-compliance with its April 22 direction in connection with his 'sharbat jihad' comments in the video. 

 

The matter has been posted for hearing on May 2. 

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Justice Amit Bansal on Thursday said that, "Mr Nayyar (senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar who appeared for Ramdev) submits on instruction that portion/extracts of the video which makes reference to the plaintiff shall be taken down. The offending part of the impugned video has been identified. Mr Nayyar on instructions submits that he shall take down the aforesaid portions of the video within 24 hours from all social media platforms, and any other media where it is hosted by the defendants."

 

At its April 22 hearing, the bench reprimanded Ramdev for his offensive videos against Hamdard's popular drink Rooh Afza in a suit filed by Hamdard Laboratories. The court ordered Ramdev to take down the videos and ordered him to give an undertaking that he wouldn't put out such videos or statements again. 

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Recently, Hamdard's advocate brought to the court's attention that Ramdev had issued another video that said profits earned by Hamdard were being diverted for building madrassas, masjids and they trusted Mughal's Aurangzeb while Patanjali's trust was in Lord Ram. 

 

Justice Bansal found that the video's tone was quite similar to the earlier appeared ones. 

 

"The affidavit that you filed is prima facie contempt. He’s not in control of anyone and lives in his own world. The affidavit that you filed is prima facie contempt...The tone and tenor of the new video is exactly similar. You refer to Hamdard… The money goes to…. Where have you complied with Para 18?" asked the court. 

 

Sethi alleged that Ramdev was trying to create a communal divide through the new video. The new video already had 90,000 views and 22,000 comments.

India