Bhardwaj arrested, sent to 1-day custody in assault case

Swatantra Bhardwaj, a self-proclaimed Hindutva influencer, was arrested and remanded to one-day police custody in New Delhi on Saturday, September 5, in connection with the alleged assault on the father of a minor Dalit student activist. The arrest followed days of pressure from activists and a viral video in which Bhardwaj appeared to boast about the attack. The case stems from an incident on June 23, 2026, during a protest organized by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. According to police and activist accounts, Sanjay Kumar, the 38-year-old father of 14-year-old student activist Nishu Azad, was allegedly assaulted during a scuffle while recording the demonstration on his mobile phone. The altercation reportedly began over the filming, and Bhardwaj was among those accused of attacking Kumar. The investigation gained significant momentum after a video podcast surfaced in which Bhardwaj allegedly claimed to have "cracked the skull" of the minor activist's father and suggested he had avoided jail due to political connections. He later stated he acted in self-defense.