Counsel for self-styled right-wing influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj told the Delhi high court on Monday that the Delhi Police had the “audacity” to travel to Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr and arrest him in connection with the Jantar Mantar protest case.“The SC has already quashed all the FIRs and the Delhi Police had the audacity to go to Bulandshahr and arrest me,” the counsel was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.Police, however, contested the claim and told the court that the FIR in the present case had not been quashed by the Supreme Court. The bench then sought a clear response from the Delhi Police, asking it to inform the court whether the FIR was “alive or not” and giving it the option of filing an affidavit or making a statement immediately, Bar and Bench report said.The police counsel also pointed out that Bhardwaj had been produced before a court following his arrest and was subsequently remanded to police and judicial custody.Meanwhile, the court extended his judicial custody by 14 days till September 21 in connection with the alleged assault on Sanjay Azad during the June 23. Bhardwaj was produced before Special Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler through video conferencing from Tihar Jail after his one-day police custody ended.He was detained in Bulandshahr on September 4 and brought to Delhi, following which a court had on September 5 granted the police one day’s custodial interrogation. He was subsequently sent to one-day judicial custody on Sunday.The arrest followed outrage over a video podcast in which Bhardwaj allegedly claimed that he had “cracked the skull” of Azad during the Jantar Mantar protest and said the alleged assault attracted Section 307.
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He later claimed he had acted in self-defence. Delhi Police had earlier said Azad’s injuries were simple in nature and were caused by a steel bracelet.Police subsequently added provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR. A separate FIR under the POCSO Act was also registered following a complaint by the teenage activist alleging online threats and harassment after she spoke about the alleged assault on her father.
