Amid the raging controversies over the assertions and allegations made by Youtuber Maridhas against the News 18 Tamil Nadu Channel and senior journalists, the Madras High Court has issued fresh directives against the Youtuber based on the petitions moved by Network 18 group and News 18 Tamil Nadu Editor Gunasekeran. 

The Network 18 group and Gunasekaran had filed a defamation suit of Rs 1.5 crore against Maridhas in the High Court for making falsified allegations that defamed the reputation of the network. After hearing the pleas, the High Court bench headed by Justice CV Karthikeyan has passed orders of directing Maridhas to refrain from publishing any further videos defaming the Network 18 group on his social media pages. 

What has come as a strong directive against the Youtuber, the High Court further ordered Maridhas to remove all defamatory videos that he has already posted on his Youtube channel, through which he has campaigned against the News 18 Tamil channel based on the unproven allegations. 

According to the reports, the Network 18 group has moved its petition with a defamation suit of both civil and criminal to the High Court after the complaint which it had filed before the Chennai police on July 12 went silent. The Network 18 and the editor had sought a directive from the court to order the Youtuber to pay the defamation suit for defaming the channel. 

The High Court bench noted that the Youtuber has published four videos in his channel against the News 18 network and observed that an individual cannot make such unfounded allegations against the network. The controversy was surfaced around the Youtuber after he made several allegations against the senior journalists of Tamil Nadu and the News 18 Tamil Channel. 

In his video that he released in the first week of July, Maridhas alleged that News 18 Tamil and its journalists are 'anti-Hindu' and they have political affiliations to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Dravida Kazhagam (DK). He went on to say that they have been anti-BJP and anti- Modi. He called on the viewers to move their complaint to the Network 18 group against the journalists of News 18 for their biased and anti-Hindu journalism. 

A week later, he published another video in which he claimed that he got a response from the Associate Editor of Network 18 stating that his allegations against News 18 Tamil channel were found to be true and that the group has accepted to launch the investigation. However, the associate editor of the group denied his response and clarified that the fake and fabricated mail has been circulating in social media under his name. 

After the revelation that Maridhas has used a fake and forged email against the group, the Network 18 has moved its complaint to the Chennai police against Maridhas and stated that the YouTuber's acts and videos on the social media are aimed at provoking and outraging the feelings of Hindus in Tamil Nadu. The group further claimed that Youtuber's action would promote hatred between the religious groups and it would damage the public peace. 

The High Court's directives have come a week after the Chennai Crime Branch booked a case against the circulation of the fake mail under the name of the Network 18's Editor. The FIR was filed under the grounds of forgery, damage to reputation, and IT act. However, the FIR hasn't named Maridhas, rather it was filed against the unnamed people for creating and circulating a fake email.