New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday (September 7) sent Hindutva worker Swatantra Bharadwaj, who had publicly boasted about cracking the skull of the father of a student activist during the Jantar Mantar protests to 14 days of judicial custody, reported LiveLaw.

Bhardwaj was produced at the Patiala House Courts on Monday, following which additional sessions judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler passed the order.

Bhardwaj will be produced before the court on September 21. Earlier, he was earlier remanded to one day of police custody on Saturday (September 5).

Also on Monday, the Delhi high court rejected a habeas corpus petition that Bhardwaj filed through his father.

The police detained Bhardwaj in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr on Friday (September 4), after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) staged a protest outside the Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest in the matter.

The Delhi Police had earlier 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 the minor activist. A POCSO case has also been registered against him.

Bhardwaj, in an interview, had claimed that he avoided going to jail despite inflicting serious injuries on his victim Sanjay Azad because he enjoys support from the establishment, including from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra.

High court dismisses habeas corpus plea

During Monday's hearing in the high court, Bhardwaj's counsel reportedly said that the FIR against him – which was lodged during the youth protests but expanded on Friday – stood quashed in light of the Supreme Court's order last week quashing all cases against protesters across the country, except for those against accused persons the Delhi police identified as having criminal antecedents.

But the police's lawyer argued that the Supreme Court's order did not cover the FIR against Bhardwaj, LiveLaw reported.

However the bench, comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja, said that Bhardwaj's counsel did not bring up this grounds in their habeas corpus petition. “You have not raised this ground in the petition. Even if we issue notice on the petition, what reply the State would have filed?” PTI quoted the judges as saying. They ultimately dismissed the plea.

This article was updated with information on the Delhi high court's order.

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