This comes after Bhardwaj was arrested for the alleged assault of a student activist’s father during a protest at Jantar Mantar.
Swatantra Bhardwaj’s lawyer claimed on Sunday that the 21-year-old faces the risk of being attacked in jail by “anti-national elements”.
‘Swatantra Bhardwaj could be attacked while in jail’: claims advocate
Speaking on the legal proceedings to news agency ANI, Bhardwaj’s advocate, Piyush Jain, stated that the police initially produced the accused via video conferencing to secure the one-day remand. Consequently, the Duty MM will simply remand him to judicial custody. The actual hearing regarding the case will take place in the special designated court for SC/ST matters,” he added.
Earlier, Bhardwaj was remanded to one-day police custody by a Delhi court on Saturday after Delhi Police arrested him for allegedly severely injuring a 38-year-old man, who was accompanied by his 14-year-old daughter, during protests at Jantar Mantar in June, according to a previous HT report .
“The matter is currently before the Duty Metropolitan Magistrate (MM), who lacks the authority to hear bail applications.
What is the case about
Following this, a Delhi court on Sunday sent Bhardwaj to one-day judicial custody in connection with the assault case. He also reportedly maintained in the podcast that he had acted in self-defence.
The police action came amid backlash over a video podcast in which Bhardwaj allegedly claimed that he had “cracked the skull” of the father of a minor activist during the June 23 protest.
