WhiteHat Jr withdraws libel suit against its critic

WhiteHat Jr withdraws libel suit against its critic

Software engineer Pradeep Poonia of defaming the Edtech start-up through his YouTube and Telegram handles

Software engineer Pradeep Poonia can heave a sigh of relief. Edtech start-up WhiteHat Jr has withdrawn a defamation suit against Poonia worth ₹20 crore. While the development has been confirmed by both parties, the reasons behind the withdrawal of the libel suit have not been divulged yet.

Byju's-owned WhiteHat Jr which teaches online coding lessons to children had filed the defamation suit against Poonia in Delhi High Court in November last year. Poonia, who used his YouTube handle WhiteHat Sr and his Telegram account to criticise WhiteHat Jr was charged with defaming and spreading misinformation against the start-up.

Edtech unicorn Byju's had acquired WhiteHat Jr for ₹2,223 core in August last year. It had also accused Poonia of infringing trademarks and copyright of properties owned by WhiteHat Jr by using a YouTube handle by the name of WhiteHat Sr.

Poonia had contended that none of his comments and videos amounted to defamation and were not malicious. It was submitted that Poonia was not carrying on any commercial activity by using the trademark 'Whitehat Sr' or the similar trademark for the purposes of business or profit-making.

The Delhi High Court had prohibited Poonia from telecasting or transmitting any information "received by hacking the WhiteHat Jr's servers" and refrain from helping people take down the content of WhiteHat Jr.

The court had also directed Poonia to stop using his social media handle WhiteHite Sr on YouTube and to take down specific URLs using this name. It had also directed Poonia to delete defamatory comments onWhiteHat Jr from his Twitter account.