A Delhi court Sunday remanded Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj to one-day judicial custody in connection with the alleged assault on the father of a teenage student activist during a protest at Jantar Mantar in June. Bhardwaj was produced through video-conferencing before duty magistrate Anjali Singh, who sent him to judicial custody. The order came a day after Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler allowed the Delhi Police’s plea seeking one-day custodial interrogation of the accused.
Delhi Police Friday added provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR against Bhardwaj over the alleged assault on Sanjay Kumar, the father of the minor activist, during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protest at Jantar Mantar.
Arrest after protest
Bhardwaj was detained in Bulandshahr Friday, hours after CJP members staged a protest outside Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest. The action followed outrage over an interview in which Bhardwaj claimed he had “cracked the skull” of the activist’s father during the June 23 protest and suggested that his political connections had helped him avoid arrest.
“I cracked the skull... Do you know which section this crime attracts? Section 307. He needed 60 stitches,” Bhardwaj had said in the interview.
Delhi Police had earlier said Kumar’s injuries were “simple” in nature and were caused by a steel bracelet. Bhardwaj subsequently claimed during a podcast that he had acted in self-defence.
CJP representatives, accompanied by Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad, had met police officials at Parliament Street police station and demanded action against Bhardwaj. The delegation also sought the addition of attempt-to-murder, criminal intimidation and SC/ST Act provisions to the case.
Separate POCSO case
In a separate development Friday, police registered a fresh FIR under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following a complaint by the minor activist alleging online threats and harassment.
Police also reportedly invoked Sections 351(3), 78 and 79 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, dealing with criminal intimidation, stalking and words or gestures intended to insult the modesty of a woman, respectively, besides Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
The teenager had earlier alleged that she received rape threats, verbal abuse and morphed images after speaking out against the alleged assault on her father and filing a police complaint.
The developments have intensified scrutiny of the case, particularly after Bhardwaj’s remarks about the alleged assault circulated widely online. His judicial custody follows one day of police interrogation as investigators continue their probe into the Jantar Mantar incident and the related allegations.