Influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj Granted Three-Week Interim Bail

Self-styled right wing influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj, who was arrested earlier this month, was granted a three-week interim bail by a Delhi court on Tuesday in the CJP protestor assault case. Bhardwaj, who admitted to attacking the father of a student protester at Jantar Mantar in July, was arrested by Delhi Police in September.

Bhardwaj, who describes himself as a “kattar Hindu”, purportedly claimed in a widely circulated video podcast that he had cracked the skull of a protester at Jantar Mantar. He was referring to a scuffle in which the girl’s father, a resident of Ghaziabad, sustained a head injury. In the video, Bharadwaj is purportedly seen and heard claiming that despite having attacked the father of a CJP protester, he had managed to stay out of jail due to the intervention of a politician.

He also purportedly boasts in the video that the person he had attacked had to be given 60 stitches and was on the verge of death – and that a case under Section 307 of the IPC, which relates to attempt to murder, should have been registered against him. He was arrested shortly after Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporters, led by leader Saurav Das, marched to the Parliament Street police station, demanding an FIR against Bhardwaj under sections such as attempt to murder and the SC/ST act.