Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protester Nishu Azad said that the Delhi Police assured her that action would be taken against self-proclaimed Hindutva influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj within 72 hours. This came after Swatantra Bhardwaj publicly boasted that he had assaulted Sanjay, the father of student agitator Azad, during a protest at Jantar Mantar in June.
"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 saying that she would die by suicide if her father didn't get justice," the right-wing hardliner said in a podcast interview on The Casual Talk, uploaded on September 1.
On Friday, the Delhi Police added provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation to the FIR against Bhardwaj, Times Now said in a report. However, the man had made several other hate-filled remarks during the podcast. His violent and vile statements primarily target Muslims, the report showed. Here are five statements that Swatantra Bhardwaj made during the podcast:
1. "If a person wearing a round cap, a long beard, and short pyjamas passes by me, I feel like vomiting... I swear by this sacred thread (rakhi).
"Even seeing a burqa-clad woman makes me want to vomit. I have tried so hard to control it within myself because, after all, they are also human. But I don't know what kind of hatred this is; I have a problem with all of them. Maybe in a past life something terrible happened to me... I have a lot of hatred."
2. "If you open my [UPI payment app], you won't find any Muslim in the transaction history at all... I do not book cabs [run by Muslims]. Even if I am extremely thirsty and panting... even if my throat dries up."
3. "We look for an opportunity where a Muslim makes some mistake so we can ruin them."
4. "I have no love for any existing political party; [I want to form] a completely separate, hardline Hindu party whose sole motive will be a 'Muslim-free India.'"
5. "If you go to jail for acts such as harassing a girl or for petty theft, they will make you clean toilets with your hands. But if you go in for some patriotic work or after committing a murder, you will get respect, choco-pies, and hot rice served inside your barrack, and all the big shots of the jail will sit with you. So I say, if the SC/ST Act is applied, shoot a bullet right there!"
