Delhi court grants interim bail to activist in protest assault case

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted three weeks of interim bail to Swatantra Bhardwaj, a right-wing activist accused of assaulting the father of a minor student protester during a demonstration in the capital. The Patiala House Court's decision came a day after it reserved its order on Bhardwaj's regular bail plea. Bhardwaj is in judicial custody in connection with an alleged assault on Sanjay Kumar, the father of a minor activist from the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), during a protest at Jantar Mantar in July 2026. The case has drawn attention following a viral video in which Bhardwaj purportedly claimed to have assaulted the man and boasted of political connections. During the bail hearing, Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler questioned Delhi Police about the invocation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCST) Prevention of Atrocities Act. Police told the court that the initial complaint did not mention casteist slurs, but the allegation was added later when the complainant's statement was recorded again, leading to the inclusion of the SCST Act provisions in the First Information Report (FIR).