Jantar Mantar Assault Case: Delhi Court Reserves Order In Swatantra Bhardwaj Bail Plea, Order Tomorrow
Delhi's Patiala House Court on Monday reserved its order on the bail plea filed by Swatantra Bhardwaj in connection with the alleged assault on the father of a minor protester during a demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The order is expected to be pronounced tomorrow.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler heard the bail plea. The proceedings before the Court were held in camera.
Bhardwaj was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch after being detained in Bulandshahr on September 4 and was subsequently produced before the Patiala House Court.
Following his arrest, the Court initially granted one day of police custody. He was thereafter sent to judicial custody for one day by the Duty Magistrate, after which the concerned court passed an order remanding him to 14 days of judicial custody.
The case relates to an incident during a protest at Jantar Mantar. The FIR was initially registered in relation to allegations of hurt and was subsequently expanded to include provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the basis of a supplementary statement recorded during the investigation.
The FIR allegations include simple hurt and casteist slurs and refer to FIR No. 0062/2026, invoking Sections 115, 125 and 126 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita along with Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Bhardwaj had earlier challenged his arrest and continued custody before the Delhi High Court through a habeas corpus petition. His counsel had argued that the FIR forming the basis of his arrest had already been quashed by the Supreme Court in proceedings concerning FIRs registered against NEET paper-leak protesters.
The Delhi High Court, however, rejected the habeas corpus plea after the State informed it that the particular FIR under which Bhardwaj had been arrested had not been quashed by the Supreme Court.
A Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja had also questioned the maintainability of the habeas corpus petition in view of the judicial orders authorizing Bhardwaj's custody.
The Bench observed that if Bhardwaj had an objection to the legality of the FIR or the remand order, the appropriate course was to challenge the concerned judicial order before the competent court.
During the hearing, the Court specifically asked whether the particular FIR under which Bhardwaj had been arrested had been quashed by the Supreme Court. The State maintained that it had not been.
The High Court ultimately recorded the instruction received from the SHO of Parliament Street Police Station that the FIR in question had not been quashed and dismissed the habeas corpus petition.
Bhardwaj's present bail plea before the Patiala House Court arises from the same criminal proceedings.
The case had attracted attention after a video surfaced in which Bhardwaj was alleged to have spoken about the Jantar Mantar incident. Delhi Police had earlier maintained that the injuries suffered by the alleged victim were simple in nature and that the case had been dealt with according to law.