Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have agreed to remove social media posts targeting BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia after the Delhi High Court suggested that they do so voluntarily. The CJP leaders told the court on Thursday that the disputed posts would be taken down within 24 hours.
The High Court did not issue a formal takedown order but urged the group to voluntarily remove the content. “There are different ways of protesting. You are all youngsters. You may have anxieties. But attacking like this without verifying is not correct,” the court observed, according to LiveLaw.
Justice Tushar Rao Gedela made the remarks while hearing Bhatia’s ₹2-crore defamation suit against Das, Ranka, Abhijeet Dipke and others. Gaurav Bhatia appeared before the court in person.
During the hearing, counsel for Saurav Das submitted that the post in question had already been deleted. The court also asked lawyers representing the remaining defendants to seek instructions on whether they were willing to voluntarily remove the disputed posts.
The legal dispute stems from a recent exchange between Saurav Das and Gaurav Bhatia on social media. Das had shared a post claiming that Bhatia referred to right-wing influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj as a “dimagi naxal”. Bhatia denied making the remark, calling the post “fake”, and demanded that Das remove it within 24 hours and issue an unconditional apology.
Saurav Das subsequently deleted the post and acknowledged that it had been generated using artificial intelligence. However, he refused to apologise. “Nonetheless, I challenge any leader in the BJP to repeat this line,” he said.
Following the deletion, Gaurav Bhatia maintained that an apology was still due and warned of legal action. “It took only 83 minutes for the post to be deleted. Unqualified apology still remains. Tomorrow will be a day of FIR if no unqualified apology is tendered. Can't spread propaganda and then just delete and run,” he wrote. The matter is part of Gaurav Bhatia’s ongoing ₹2-crore defamation case against several CJP leaders.
