Influencer who bragged about cracking man's skull detained after CJP protest

New Delhi: Delhi Police detained Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj in UP on Friday, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party staged a protest outside the Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest for assaulting a student's father, a crime he bragged about in an interview.

The detention came after CJP representatives, accompanied by Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad and MP Pappu Yadav, met police officials and were assured that action would be taken against Bhardwaj within 72 hours.

The delegation sought the addition of attempt-to-murder, criminal intimidation and SC/ST Act provisions to the case and demanded a separate FIR over alleged rape threats, abuse and objectionable images targeting the assault victim Sanjay Kumar's daughter Nishu. Bhardwaj, who describes himself as a "kattar" (staunch) Hindu, claimed in an interview that he cracked the skull of Nishu's father and got away with it because of his political connections, causing widespread outrage on social media.



"I cracked the skull of Nishu's father... But I was not even jailed. The world should know this. I was out and about through the night," Bhardwaj said in the interview.

Police sources said Bhardwaj fled from Naithla village on a Royal Enfield motorcycle towards Khurja before a police team reached there to apprehend him. He was wearing a helmet to conceal his identity, they said.

Police said Kumar was medically examined at RML Hospital and his injuries were opined to be simple in nature.