New Delhi: Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj on Saturday was produced before a Delhi court, which remanded him to one day of police custody.
Bhardwaj was detained in Bulandshahr on Friday, hours after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) staged a protest outside the Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest over the alleged assault.
The Delhi Police on Friday added provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR against Bhardwaj over the alleged assault on the father of a minor activist, during the CJP-led protest at Jantar Mantar in July. A POCSO case has also been registered against him.
Also read: CJP protest at Delhi police station: What is the row over Swatantra Bhardwaj?
The action follows outrage over an interview in which Bhardwaj claimed he had "cracked the skull" of the minor activist's father during the July 20 protest and escaped arrest because of his political connections.
"I cracked the skull... Do you know which section this crime attracts? Section 307. He needed 60 stitches," Bhardwaj had said in the interview.
The Delhi Police had earlier said the victim's injuries were "simple" in nature and were caused by a steel bracelet. Bhardwaj later claimed in a podcast that he had acted in self-defence.
