ANI Moves Delhi Court Against YouTuber Thugesh Alleging Copyright Infringement

News agency Asian News International (ANI) has moved a Delhi Court alleging copyright infringement by a YouTuber “Thugesh Unfiltered Channel”.

ANI has sought permanent and mandatory injunction and damages for “copyright infringement, piracy, plagiarism, unjust enrichment and other wrongs” against Thugesh, whose real name is Mahesh Rajesh Keshwala.

The suit seeks an injunction against Thugesh from posting, publishing, uploading, distributing, re-publishing on any platform or using in any manner, the copyrighted work or content of ANI, including the videos published on the YouTube channel of the news agency.

“The Plaintiff also seeks directions against Defendant No. 2 to take down and remove any content published by Defendant No. 1, including the infringing videos or part thereof which reproduces the original copyrighted works of the Plaintiff,” the suit states.

The matter was heard briefly today by Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of the Patiala House Courts who ordered that written statements be filed in the matter.

The Court will hear the matter next on September 12.

ANI's suit mentions four videos that were allegedly used by Thugesh on his YouTube channel without authorisation of the news agency.

As per ANI, the said videos were unauthorized reproductions of its original works and therefore amount to copyright infringement.

“As per the policies governing the YouTube platform ("YouTube Policy"), Defendant No. 2 expressly prohibits users from uploading content that includes copyrighted material without proper authorization,” the suit states.

It adds: “If such infringing videos are uploaded, the YouTube Policy allows the copyright owner to file a removal request, commonly referred to as a copyright strike, to have the infringing request, commonly referred to as a copyright strike, to have the infringing content taken down.”

“ Due to the unlawful reproduction of the Plaintiff's Original Videos by Defendant No. 1, the Plaintiff was left with no option but to invoke the copyright protection mechanism provided by Defendant No. 2. In accordance with this mechanism, the Plaintiff issued copyright strikes against the Infringing Videos uploaded by Defendant No. 1 on 3 May 2025 and 31 May 2025. Upon review, Defendant No. 2 found merit in the Plaintiff's claims and accordingly removed the Infringing Videos from Defendant No. 1's YouTube channel hosted on its platform,” it adds.

It has been alleged that the publication of the allegedly infringing Videos of ANI was a calculated and deliberate act by Thugesh to garner more views and reap monetary benefits at the cost of the news agency.