YouTuber Dhruv Rathee hits back at Swati Maliwal, denounces accusations

Popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has spoken out against what he describes as "fake allegations" aimed at silencing him. The online personality took a veiled dig at AAP MP Swati Maliwal following her recent claims of receiving rape and death threats allegedly spurred by a video uploaded by Rathee.

The video in question, shared by Rathee, delved into the purported assault on Maliwal by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide, Bibhav Kumar.

In a cryptic post on social media platform X, Rathee, without explicitly mentioning Maliwal's name, implied that the perpetrators were masquerading as victims. "Fake allegations against me, daily death threats, dehumanising insults, coordinated campaigns to defame me... I am used to it by now. The irony is that perpetrators are pretending to be victims. Everyone knows who is behind all this. They want to silence me," Rathee shared in a tweet.

Undeterred by the backlash, Rathee affirmed his resilience, stating, "But that's not going to happen. If you silence 1 Dhruv Rathee, 1000 new ones will rise up."

Maliwal, on her part, asserted on Sunday that she was inundated with "rape and death threats" amidst what she described as a "character assassination" campaign orchestrated by AAP leaders, following the dissemination of the contentious video.

Expressing frustration at her attempts to engage with Rathee, Maliwal claimed that her outreach to present her side of the story had been ignored.

"It is shameful that people like him, who claim to be independent journalists, could act like other AAP spokespersons and victim-shame me to the extent that I am now facing extreme abuses and threats," Maliwal lamented in a statement shared on X.

During a court hearing on Monday regarding the bail petition of Bibhav Kumar, Maliwal reiterated her allegation against Rathee, suggesting that the dissemination of a "one-sided video" had precipitated a barrage of death threats against her.