NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday granted Swatantra Bhardwaj interim bail for three weeks in connection with the alleged assault of the father of a Dalit student-activist during a protest at Jantar Mantar.Bhardwaj is facing charges in connection with the alleged assault during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar in June. He was arrested in Uttar Pradesh on September 5 and has been in judicial custody.The court’s interim bail order comes a day after Bhardwaj’s counsel argued that his arrest was politically motivated and claimed that the complainant had attacked Bhardwaj during the incident.During Monday’s hearing, advocate Umesh Sharma told the court that a video purportedly showed the complainant attacking Bhardwaj.“Police ko wo video nazar nahi aa raha… Is video m clearly dikhai de raha hai ki complainant is mujhpe attack kiya hai aur main gir gaya hu (The police are not able to see that video. It is clearly visible in this video that the complainant attacked me and I fell down),” Sharma told the court.Sharma also alleged that Bhardwaj was arrested under the SC/ST Act for political reasons. He said Bhardwaj had initially received a police notice to appear for questioning on June 27 and appeared before investigators on June 29, after which he was allowed to leave.“The police issued me a notice on June 27 to appear for questioning, and I appeared for questioning on June 29. After that, I was allowed to go. Then, after some political developments, I was arrested on September 4. After my arrest, a new FIR [under POCSO] was registered,” Sharma said.Advocate Swati Khanna, appearing for the complainant, opposed the bail plea and alleged that Bhardwaj had used casteist slurs against the complainant. She also claimed that Bhardwaj had admitted in a video that he was the one who attacked the complainant.Delhi Police told the court that the original complaint did not mention any casteist slur. However, a casteist slur was included in a subsequent statement, following which provisions of the SC/ST Act were added.Khanna also informed the court that Bhardwaj had approached the Delhi high court with a habeas corpus plea challenging his arrest, but the plea was rejected.
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Bhardwaj was initially booked under Sections 115(2) and 126(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to causing simple hurt and wrongful restraint. The case was later expanded to include provisions of the SC/ST Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).Delhi Police had earlier extended Bhardwaj’s judicial custody until September 21. The action followed protests by CJP leaders, the student and her father outside the Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest.Bhardwaj had also claimed in an interview that he had “cracked the skull” of the girl’s father during the protest and escaped arrest because of his political connections. He had claimed proximity to NDA leaders Kapil Mishra and Chirag Paswan, though Paswan denied the claim and filed a separate complaint against him for allegedly misusing his name.