3 min readNew DelhiSep 6, 2026 03:20 AM IST
First published on: Sep 5, 2026 at 02:49 PM IST
Swatantra Bharadwaj, a self-styled influencer who admitted to attacking the father of a student protester at Jantar Mantar in July, was arrested by Delhi Police on Saturday. A Delhi court remanded him in one-day police custody.
Police said Bhardwaj, who was picked up by Crime Branch officers from his house in Bulandshahr on Friday and brought to Delhi after securing a transit remand, was produced at the residence of a Karkardooma Court judge around 2 pm Saturday.
His lawyers, who had appeared through video conferencing, complained later that they had not been informed the proceedings would take place at the judge’s residence.
Advocate Swati Khanna, representing the student protester and her family, said, “Police sought only one day’s custody and were granted the same. But we have not been provided a copy of the FIR registered, the Daily Diary Report, or the details of the investigating officer.”
On Friday, 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 on the protester’s father, amid a protest by supporters of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Indian Youth Congress, as well as Lok Sabha MPs Chandra Shekhar alias Azad and Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.
A senior officer said police will now question Bhardwaj over allegations that he violated the SC/ST Act, specifically, whether the ‘intent’ of the attack on the protester’s father, a Dalit, contained an element of caste discrimination or prejudice.
On Friday evening, an 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. (The protester’s name is being withheld because she is a minor, and a case has been registered under the POCSO Act.)
A senior officer said police would also examine whether the charge of ‘attempt to murder’ could be added to the FIR, as demanded by the CJP.
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.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, members of Hindu Raksha Dal protested outside the Parliament Street police station, demanding the release of Bharadwaj and an FIR against the student protester and her father.
They claimed that she had “posted against Hindu religion” and its deities on social media. They also submitted a complaint to the Delhi Police, alleging the student’s account has not been taken down despite the “anti- Hindu posts”. As of Saturday night, a case had not been registered on the basis of the complaint.
Swatantra Bhardwaj was picked up by the Crime Branch officers from his house in Bulandshahr (X/Image enhanced using AI) 
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