Delhi HC agrees to hear on Monday Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj's plea against arrest

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday agreed to grant urgent hearing on a plea by Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj against 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 for urgent hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia which allowed it to be listed during the day.

Advocate Umesh Sharma mentioned the matter on behalf of Bhardwaj, and said "the person is in custody for last three days, I am praying that the habeas corpus petition be listed today".


On Sunday, Bhardwaj was produced before a duty magistrate through video conferencing and sent to one-day judicial custody in the case.

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Bhardwaj was detained in Bulandshahr on September 4, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) staged a protest outside the Parliament Street police station here demanding his arrest over the alleged assault.

Delhi Police has added provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR against Bhardwaj over the alleged assault on Sanjay Kumar, the father of a teenage student activist, during the CJP-led protest at Jantar Mantar in June. A POCSO case has also been registered against him.

Following his arrest, he was produced at the residence of a sessions judge here on September 5 who allowed the Delhi Police's plea seeking one-day custodial interrogation of the accused.

The police action follows outrage over an interview in which Bhardwaj claimed he had "cracked the skull" of the student activist's father during the June 23 protest and escaped arrest because of his political connections.

"I cracked the skull... Do you know which section this crime attracts? Section 307. He needed 60 stitches," Bhardwaj had said in the interview.

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The student 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.