Randeep Hothi: Meet the Indian-American student who sued Elon Musk and won round one

Randeep Hothi, an Indian American student has caused a stir across the globe by winning the first round of legal battle against Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The SpaceX founder was unsuccessful in convincing the US federal judge of dismissing the defamation lawsuit filed by Rothi against Musk. The California judge not only dismissed Tesla CEO’s pleas but also there were grounds for a trial and added that Tesla critic could win, reported Bloomberg. Hothi had said in August 2020 that Musk had defamed him and even hampered his reputation by writing an email claiming that Hothi has “almost killed Tesla employees”. The Tesla CEO had attempted to overturn the lawsuit but remained unsuccessful.

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Who is Randeep Hothi?

Randeep Hothi is a former student of the University of California in Berkeley and is presently a doctoral candidate in Asian languages at the University of Michigan. He is widely known for publicly scrutinising Tesla and has often taken to Twitter under the handle ‘skabooshka’ to put out statements. With an account description saying, “Investigating/Reporting on corporate fraud. Currently focusing on Tesla. DMs open for fellow travelers, reporters, whistleblowers, etc.” and having over 10.8k followers, Rothi has not tweeted anything after April 23, 2019. However, he did retweet two posts in March 2020.

Reportedly, Hothi is also known to part of a global anonymous group of Tesla critics who are referred to as ‘$TSLAQ’. The group members range from former employees to other graduate students such as Hothi. All of them take to social media to criticise the company. As per reports, Rothi’s parents live in Fremont, the place where Tesla’s auto plant is located. Even though the $TSLAQ members post anonymously, Randeep Rothi and his brother’s identity was revealed by another anonymous user. He has remained inactive and has a significantly low presence on social media. 

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What is Rothi’s defamation case against Musk?

As per reports, Randeep Hothi is a University of Michigan graduate student who drew Elon Musk’s wrath at least two years ago following two separate incidents including Hothi’s harmless claims. Firstly, in February 2019, Hothi was confronted by a security guard when he went to do research reportedly at Tesla sales centre in Fremont, California. Secondly, in April 2019, Hothi said he was driving when he had spotted a Tesla test car, took photos of it and posted online. 

In the wake of the incidents, Musk had complained about Hothi in an e-mail to an online tech editor describing Hothi as ‘liar’ and accused him of “almost killing Tesla employees” while driving away from the sales centre. However, Hothi claimed that Musk had unleashed an online hate campaign against him and filed the lawsuit in August in Alameda county superior court. But, Tesla CEO asked the judge to strike the lawsuit on the grounds that his remarks were a matter of public interest. However, Tesla CEO has now lost.

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