Social media influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj granted bail in Jantar Mantar assault case

A Delhi court Tuesday granted self-styled influencer Swatantra Bharadwaj regular bail in a case where he allegedly attacked the father of a student protester who had participated in the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest in July. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler of the Patiala House Court had earlier granted Bharadwaj interim bail for three weeks.

ASJ Laler had then said that it would observe his conduct before considering his plea for regular bail. A detailed regular bail order is awaited. In its order granting Bharadwaj interim bail, ASJ Laler had said, “Weighing all circumstances, the Court takes into account that the applicant has been in custody for a little over 10 days. a period that should have afforded him time for reflection.” The case Bharadwaj had purportedly admitted to attacking the father of the student protester at Jantar Mantar in a video.

He was picked up by the Crime Branch officers from his house in Bulandshahr on September 4 and brought to Delhi after securing a transit remand. On September 4, relevant sections pertaining to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act), were added to an earlier FIR registered against Bharadwaj over the alleged attack, amid a protest by CJP supporters and the Indian Youth Congress, as well as Lok Sabha MPs Chandra Shekhar alias Azad and Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.

The same day, another FIR was also registered under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and for criminal intimidation based on the protester’s complaint alleging she had received rape threats from Bhardwaj’s supporters. Bharadwaj had been in judicial custody since September 5 till he was granted interim bail on September 15.

While granting interim bail to the accused, the court had also pulled up the police for leaving significant ground uncovered in the investigation. “The investigation, as disclosed in the reply, leaves significant ground uncovered. The podcast forms the central basis of the State’s opposition, and its authenticity is disputed.

Yet the reply does not state whether the person who manages the channel has been examined, whether the original footage has been requisitioned, or whether the electronic material has been sent for forensic examination,” ASJ Laler had said in the interim bail order.