This incident was supposed to happen on Friday, and everything began with the chase.
Swatantra Bharadwaj, who is accused of physically abusing the father of Nishu Azad in the protest organized on 20th July at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, has successfully escaped from Delhi to Bulandshahr by his Bullet bike even after the Delhi Police promised to arrest him.
However, Swatantra Bharadwaj, the Hindutva influencer, was finally arrested in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday.
Bharadwaj’s flight attempt had a premeditated and evading feel to it, according to the police narrative.
Bharadwaj was leaving the Naithla village on a Bullet bike and heading towards Khurja on a Bullet motorcycle and he was wearing a helmet as well as a disguise. There were some plain-clothes policemen who were looking for him.
The accusations against Bharadwaj have come in view of the case of violence during one of the most renowned protests that took place in Delhi in the year 2016, which has been making headlines for the past few weeks in all the news articles - the very protest of 20 July at Jantar Mantar for the pellet injuries sustained by Sahil Lochab and Rahul Gandhi's dharna.
Bharadwaj allegedly hit Sanjay Kumar, who is the father of student activist Nishu Azad. There was a video clip showing an interview of Bharadwaj, in which he was saying how he had broken Sanjay Kumar's skull.
The severity of the crime can be understood from the fact that there was nobody around to testify and neither were there any victims who could provide testimony; however, the complaint was filed by Bharadwaj himself!
Bharadwaj had admitted to breaking the head of Nishu's father in the highly popular video clip of the podcast, and he even went further to say "I am not even jailed for it." In addition to this, Bharadwaj had provided information regarding the crime he committed and the "Section" of the crime which was "I broke the head of Nishu's father. Can you tell me which section does this crime come under? It comes under section 307. The man needed 60 stitches. He was being taken to hospital in ambulance in critical condition."
Section 307 relates to attempt to murder in India.
In addition to the information relating to his own story on the assault against him, it is stated that Bharadwaj made an observation that, if proved true, will help us understand how politics was used to assist him in avoiding any sort of punishment for his actions.
Politics were involved in this case, as far as Bharadwaj is concerned, since he was saved from the clutches of arrest due to an intervention made through a phone call from a minister of Delhi, named Kapil Mishra.
Bharadwaj has created a public image of himself online through a distinct identity that seems to play an important role in his self-presentation.
In his own words, Bhardwaj is a "kattar Hindu," meaning a hardline Hindu, and has even been referred to as a "self-proclaimed 'Sanatani Yodha'" — a religious identity based on aggression that seems to have played a significant role in shaping both his public rhetoric and, from the video that went viral, his presentation of the incident as a thing to be proud of.
It should be noted that Bharadwaj was not arrested during regular investigations but under the sustained pressure exerted by the same organization, whose demonstration Bharadwaj is accused of interrupting.
The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) organized a demonstration outside the Parliament Street police station, New Delhi, on Friday demanding action against Bharadwaj. The co-convener of CJP, Saurav Das, confronted Delhi Police and asked them as to why they had failed to identify the "goons like Swatantra Bharadwaj" who were present at Jantar Mantar right from the beginning and threatened to conduct more demonstrations if police did not act in the next 72 hours.
There were other participants of the protest apart from those from CJP—Chandra Shekhar Azad, who is the chief and MP of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), and the co-convener of CJP, Ashutosh Ranka, who accused Delhi Police of being lenient towards Bharadwaj.
Representatives of CJP were very clear regarding what kind of legal charges they want to be levied against Bharadwaj, which goes much beyond that of an ordinary case of assault.
The representatives said that Bharadwaj must be charged under attempted murder and criminal intimidation as well as SC/ST Act, which has caste aspect that organisers claim is related to the case, owing to the identity of Sanjay Kumar and his daughter Nishu Azad. CJP representatives also claimed that they will file a different FIR on cyber crime against Bharadwaj.
This particular instance is yet another point of contention in the context of the larger unrest which began after the Jantar Mantar rallies of July – a protest trend which has seen the emergence of a case involving injuries sustained from a pellet gun, a dharna led by Rahul Gandhi, and now a fugitive turned detainee for assaulting police.
Together with the prior efforts of the Delhi Police to combat the spread of misinformation around these very protests, Bharadwaj’s attempt to flee arrest and his eventual detention is one more piece in the puzzle that saw Jantar Mantar consistently generating such incidents throughout the summer.
Since the arrest of Bharadwaj has taken place, there is no knowing how he will be officially charged for the crime CJP has demanded him to be charged for, which include attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, and SC/ST Act.
In view of Bharadwaj’s claim that a minister's intervention did not allow him to be jailed, there is a possibility that this will be a heavily examined process of charging and prosecution.
