The Delhi High Court is set to urgently hear a plea filed by Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj on Monday, challenging his arrest in connection with the alleged assault on the father of a student activist during a protest at Jantar Mantar. The habeas corpus petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhayay and Justice Tejas Karia, which directed the matter to be listed for hearing during that day.
Advocate Umesh Sharma, who is appearing for Bhardwaj, has filed an urgent hearing, saying that his client had been in custody for the past three days. Bharajwaj was detained in Bulandshahr on September 4 following the protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) outside the Parliament Street police station, demanding his arrest over the alleged assault during the protest.
The Delhi Police added provisions under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR against Bhardwaj for the alleged assault. A POCSO case has also been registered against him.
Bhardwaj allegedly assaulted Sanjay Kumar, father of teenage student activist Nishu Azad, amidst the CJP-led protest at Jantar Mantar over the alleged leaked NEET paper.
Bharjwad, after his arrest, was produced at the residence of the session judge on September 5.
Following his arrest, Bhardwaj was produced at the residence of a sessions judge on September 5. The judge granted the Delhi Police one day of custodial interrogation.
The police action comes ahead of a podcast in which Bhardwaj claimed that he had “cracked the skull” of the student activist Nishu’s father and was not arrested because of his connections with the politicians.
“I cracked the skull… Do you know which section this crime attracts? Attempt to murder, Section 307. He needed 60 stitches,” Bhardwaj could be seen saying in the interview.
“The man was dying, being taken in an ambulance. His daughter was standing outside the police station and saying that, if her father didn’t get justice, she would consume poison and die… We didn’t even go to jail. The whole world should know this. We didn’t even go to jail,” he claimed.
“I have spent time in jail. I know very well what happens in jail,” he said.
“If you go to jail for acts such as harassing a girl or for petty theft, they will make you clean toilets with your hands. But if you go in for some patriotic work or after committing a murder, you will get respect, choco-pies, hot rice served inside your barrack, and all the big shots of the jail will sit with you. So I say, if the SC/ST Act is applied, shoot a bullet right there!” he added.
Earlier than this, the student activist Nishu also alleged that she received rape threats and verbal abuse and morphed imagies from the supporters of Bhardwaj after speaking out against the alleged assault on her father. He was assaulted during the CJP protest in the month of June.
