Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj sent to one-day police custody

New Delhi: Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj on Saturday was produced before a Delhi court, which remanded him to one day of police custody.

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

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


Also read: CJP protest at Delhi police station: What is the row over Swatantra Bhardwaj?

The action follows outrage over an interview in which Bhardwaj claimed he had "cracked the skull" of the minor activist's father during the July 20 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.

The Delhi Police had earlier said the victim's injuries were "simple" in nature and were caused by a steel bracelet. Bhardwaj later claimed in a podcast that he had acted in self-defence.



On Friday, in a separate development, police had registered a fresh FIR under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on a complaint by the minor activist, alleging online threats and harassment.

The police also reportedly invoked BNS Sections 351(3), 78 (stalking) and 79 (insulting the modesty of a woman), besides Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

The minor 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 came after CJP representatives, accompanied by Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad, met police officials at the Parliament Street police station and sought action against Bharadwaj.

The delegation had also demanded the addition of attempt-to-murder, criminal intimidation and SC/ST Act provisions to the case and a separate FIR over alleged rape threats and online abuse targeting the minor activist.