Right-wing vigilante Swatantra Bhardwaj was on Tuesday granted interim bail for three weeks by a court in Delhi in the case of assault on a teen Dalit activist’s father at Jantar Mantar during the protest by the Cockroach Janata Party in June.
During a hearing before Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler on Monday, Bhardwaj’s lawyer argued that the arrest was politically motivated and presented video footage asserting that the complainant had initiated the physical attack. However, following supplementary statements alleging the use of casteist slurs and online threats to the minor activist, police invoked provisions under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act alongside a separate FIR under the POCSO Act. Bhardwaj was initially booked under sections 115(2) (causing hurt) and 126(2) (wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Delhi Police officers had caught Bhardwaj in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, on September 5, days after he had been gloating on social media that he “cracked his skull open”, and after a protest at the Parliament Street police station by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, besides demands by Aazad Samaj Party MP Chandrashekhar Azad and a CJP team led by Ashotosh Ranka.
The bench led by the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, remarked, “There cannot be any second opinion about it. Such matters cannot be taken lightly. Nobody should be protected. The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to ensure action on the girl’s FIR alleging a later attack on her house, and sought reports from the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh governments on the issue.
If violence against a child is involved and persons are roaming free and trying to browbeat the child or the family so that they do not pursue the criminal proceedings, then it’s a serious matter. The counsel appearing for the 14-year-old girl told the court that she was harassed and her house was vandalised after she registered the FIR against Swatantra Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj had also approached the Supreme Court last Thursday, and the bench said nobody could be permitted to browbeat a victim or her family for pursuing criminal proceedings.
