Delhi court grants regular bail to Swatantra Bhardwaj in CJP protest assault case

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted right-wing influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj regular bail in a case related to the assault of the father of a student-activist during the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) protests at Jantar Mantar.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler of the Patiala House Court passed the order.

The judge had earlier granted him interim bail for three weeks.

The Court had then said that it would observe his conduct before considering his plea for regular bail.

Bhardwaj was arrested from Uttar Pradesh on September 5 for allegedly assaulting the father of a Dalit student-activist during the CJP protests at Jantar Mantar in July.

He was booked for offences of assault and provisions under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act [SC/ST Act]. A separate FIR invoking provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) has also been registered against him.

In the first FIR, Bhardwaj was initially booked only for the offences under Sections 115(2) (causing simple hurt) and 126(2) (wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

He later took to social media and claimed that he had cracked the skull of the girl's father and was detained by the police only for a few hours.

After Cockroach Janta Party leaders, along with the girl and her father, protested at the Parliament Street police station, more serious charges were added, and Bhardwaj was arrested.

Bhardwaj had earlier approached the Delhi High Court with a habeas corpus plea to declare his arrest illegal. However, the Court rejected that plea.

During bail hearings before the trial court on interim bail, advocate Umesh Chandra Sharma appeared for Bhardwaj and argued that he was arrested by the Delhi Police due to political reasons and that it was the complainant who attacked him.

Sharma said that there is a video of the complainant attacking him, but the Delhi Police has taken no action against the complainant. 

On the other hand, advocate Swati Khanna appeared for the complainant and stated that Bhardwaj used casteist slurs against the complainant and even admitted on a video that it was he who attacked the complainant.

Advocates Umesh Sharma, Chhaya Sharma, Neeraj Chauhan, Nishant Choudhary and Naveen Sharma appeared for Swatantra Bhardwaj.

Advocates Swati Khanna, Mohd Yasin, Omar Hoda, Rishav Ranjan, Ayesha Khan and Rishabh Singh represented the complainant.

Advocate Santosh Kumar represented the State.