Police Detain Influencer After Protest Over Alleged Assault

PTI, September 4, 2026, New Delhi: Delhi Police detained Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party staged a protest outside the Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest for assaulting a student's father, a crime he bragged about in an interview.

The detention came after CJP representatives, accompanied by Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad and MP Pappu Yadav, met police officials and were assured that action would be taken against Bhardwaj within 72 hours.

The delegation sought the addition of attempt-to-murder, criminal intimidation and SC/ST Act provisions to the case and demanded a separate FIR over alleged rape threats, abuse and objectionable images targeting the assault victim Sanjay Kumar's daughter Nishu.

Bhardwaj, who describes himself as a "kattar" (staunch) Hindu, claimed in an interview that he cracked the skull of Nishu's father and got away with it because of his political connections, causing widespread outrage on social media.

"I cracked the skull of Nishu's father. Do you know which section this crime attracts? Section 307. He needed 60 stitches. The man was being taken away in an ambulance in a serious condition. His daughter was standing outside the police station and saying that she would die by suicide if her father didn't get justice. But I was not even jailed. The world should know this. I was out and about through the night," Bhardwaj said in the interview.