ANI drags YouTuber Mohak Mangal, Kamra, Zubair to court over extortion claim

New Delhi: Wire agency Asian News International (ANI) has filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against YouTuber Mohak Mangal, alleging that his recent video accusing the agency of extortion is not only false but a calculated attack on ANI’s credibility and commercial reputation.

The suit, filed through Advocate Akshit Mago, also names stand-up comic Kunal Kamra and AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair as defendants for amplifying Mangal’s video on social media and for what ANI calls “independent defamatory statements.”

Also read: Piracy is not free speech: Why YouTubers must pay for ANI’s content

The matter is likely to be heard on May 29.

At the heart of the lawsuit is a video published by Mangal on May 25, in which he alleges that ANI initiated YouTube copyright strikes against his channel and then demanded a payment of over Rs 40 lakh to withdraw the strikes. Mangal labels the practice as “extortion and blackmail.”

Also read: ANI vs YouTubers: Why YouTube must step in to protect its creator ecosystem

ANI has pushed back hard.

In its petition, the agency states that Mangal has admitted to using its copyrighted video content for monetisation but has still gone ahead and released “a deliberately misleading and defamatory video” that seeks to damage the reputation of ANI and its registered trademarks.

“The statements made in the impugned video are demonstrably false,” ANI says in its plea, adding that Mangal’s narrative not only distorts facts but aims to dissuade current and prospective users of ANI’s services by framing the agency as a coercive operator rather than a rights holder protecting its intellectual property.

Also read: PTI offers paid video access to creators amid ANI copyright strike row

The suit further points out that the video makes repeated use of ANI’s logos and content while attacking the very legitimacy of those assets, an act that ANI claims is a misuse of its trademark protections under Indian law.

But the lawsuit doesn’t stop at Mangal.

The defamation suit also targets Kunal Kamra, Mohammed Zubair, and other unnamed individuals who shared or commented on the video. ANI accuses them of posting additional “false, baseless, and malicious” statements against the agency and its founders on social media.

“These statements are devoid of any factual or legal foundation and are clearly intended to malign the Plaintiff’s reputation and lower its estimation in the eyes of the public,” the plea notes.

ANI has sought the following reliefs from the Delhi High Court:

1. A permanent and mandatory injunction directing Mohak Mangal to take down the May 25 video, cease using ANI’s trademarks, and abstain from publishing or circulating any further defamatory content.

2. Similar restraining orders against Kamra, Zubair, and others, prohibiting them from sharing or commenting in a manner that ANI deems defamatory or misleading.