A 22-Year-Old's IPS Dream To Attempt To Murder Brag: The Making of Swatantra Bhardwaj

On September 2, a podcast episode appeared on a YouTube channel called The Casual Talk, hosted by Neha Singh Rathore, a Bihar-based YouTuber who describes herself as a nationalist and social activist. In it, a young man with a thick Bihar accent described, in granular detail, how he had cracked open a man's skull at a protest.

"You know what section applies when we crack Nishu's father's head? Attempt to murder, Section 307," said Swatantra Bhardwaj, a social media figure with 342,000 Facebook followers and a bio that reads "Kattar Hindu."

"He had seven stitches on his head. The man was in a condition where he could have died and was being taken away in an ambulance," the 22-year-old bragged.

"His daughter was saying outside the police station, 'If my father does not get justice, we will consume poison and die,'" Bhardwaj continued. "I didn't even go to jail, I was roaming around all night."

When the host asked about the police baton he had been seen carrying at the protest, Bhardwaj smiled. "We don't fill out forms to join the Delhi Police," he said. "We automatically operate as the Delhi Police."

By September 3, the clip was everywhere on X. By September 4, supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were outside Parliament Street police station demanding his arrest. By September 5, Delhi Police had detained Bhardwaj in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, where he had fled on a Bullet motorcycle, wearing a helmet to hide his face. On September 7, a Delhi court sent him to 14 days of judicial custody.

He is now in Tihar Jail, where his lawyer says he has gone on a hunger strike "to seek justice."

The podcast has since been deleted from YouTube. Rathore said the video was removed following mass reporting.

The man Bhardwaj spoke about assaulting is Sanjay Kumar, 38, a resident of Ghaziabad and the father of Nishu Azad, a 14-year-old Dalit content creator affiliated with the CJP — the Gen-Z-led protest movement that emerged in mid-2026 after India's Chief Justice called unemployed youth "cockroaches." Kumar was attacked during a CJP protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on June 23, 2026.

For more than two months after the assault, no arrest was made. Then the podcast went viral.

The boy from Darbhanga

Swatantra Bhardwaj is originally from Ojhaul village in Darbhanga, Bihar, where his uncle Ajit Jha still lives in the family's ancestral home.

His family is steeped in state service.

His grandfather served in the Bihar Police. An elder uncle was posted with the Assam Rifles. When his father, Randhir Jha, was posted as a sub-inspector in the Vigilance Department of the Bihar Police, the family moved to Patna, where Swatantra grew up. His mother, Chandani Jha, practises as an advocate at the Patna High Court.

In Patna, he attended Don Bosco Academy, an ICSE school, and scored a distinction in Class 10. Ajit Jha, a teacher at a higher secondary school in Ojhaul, told Decode that Swatantra was a "bright student" who was "active in social work" even as a teenager.

"He had started a 'Roti Bank' with his friends to provide food to poor people," Jha said, remembering his nephew as someone meant for bigger things.

In July 2022, after his Class 12 results, the then-18-year-old wrote a Facebook post about his ambitions. "A Class 12 marksheet will not get me an IPS uniform," he wrote.

"I will get the IPS uniform by clearing the UPSC examination. So, I don't mind in the slightest. My focus is on the biggest goal." 

His parents sent him to Delhi for graduation at Delhi University. He was also preparing for the UPSC exam. In his final year, Jha said, his nephew cleared IELTS and received an admission offer from a college in Canada. His father refused to send him, citing the political and diplomatic situation there.

In Delhi, Bhardwaj then found new ambitions.

The turn

"While living in Delhi, he became increasingly active in Sanatan-related activities," Ajit Jha told Decode, choosing his words carefully.

Bhardwaj's Facebook timeline tells a more specific story. He began appearing in vox-pop videos on right-wing YouTube channels, offering hardline takes on Muslims, reservations, and the idea of Akhand Bharat. In one clip, he slapped a man on camera for mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The caption on the video read: "Ek aur cockroach mara gaya." 

His content grew progressively more inflammatory. In a video that opens with "Jai Gau Mata, Jai Shri Ram," Bhardwaj announced a bounty of one lakh rupees on actress Swara Bhasker for her comments about the jauhar scene in Padmaavat. "Wherever this woman is found — whether by a Kshatrani or a Brahmin woman — pull out her tongue," he said. "We will pay ₹1 lakh for it." The video remains on Facebook and has been archived.

In another post, he is seen pulling a man by his hair and displaying his bloodied face to the camera. The word "Mughal" is written over the injured man. The caption reads: "Aa gaya swaad." 

He shared AI-generated images targeting Muslim women. He posted a video claiming that Brahmin sperm is "in demand around the world" and would produce "bravehearts," while making derogatory remarks about Mughal rulers.

His Facebook bio was updated to say he works at "Akhand Hindu Rashtra." His Instagram profile, before it was deleted on September 4, described him as a "Swatantra Sanatani Yodha" and had around 185,000 followers across 145 posts. Decode attempted to access archived versions through the Wayback Machine but was unable to retrieve them.

The network

Bhardwaj was closely associated with Abhishek Thakur, who describes himself as the Uttar Pradesh state vice-president of the youth wing of Shri Rajput Karni Sena.

In a recent viral clip, Thakur threatened Lok Sabha MP Chandrashekhar Azad, claiming that his "brother from Bulandshahr" had fired at Azad but missed — a reference to an alleged 2020 attack on the Dalit leader.

In December 2025, Bhardwaj attended a Jantar Mantar event organised by Sudarshan Vahini, a Delhi-based outfit that campaigns for cow protection and a Hindu Rashtra. Its national president is Vinod Sharma. At the event, Bhardwaj spoke about the Shraddha–Aftab murder case and expressed support for making the cow the "mother of the nation" and for a law against "love jihad."

He also received support from Daksh Chaudhary, a cow vigilante and Hindu Raksha Dal member.

But it was Bhardwaj's proximity to elected politicians that drew the most attention after the podcast went viral.

His Facebook page carries photographs of him with Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra, and Union Minister Chirag Paswan. In the podcast, he referred to Mishra as his "elder brother" and invoked both Paswan and Prime Minister Modi. "Chirag Paswan is our elder brother. Do you know which leaders we know? We know Modi ji. Modi is also our elder brother," he said.

He posted a photograph of an invitation issued in his name by the Ministry of Defence for the Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort on August 15, 2026. He had earlier posted photos of an invitation to PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony on June 9, 2024.

A journalist speaking on the condition of anonymity told Decode that the swearing-in invitation may have come through a Delhi BJP leader, given that more than 8,000 people attended the 2024 ceremony. Entry passes for Independence Day and Republic Day events can also be booked through the MoD's official Aamantran portal by registering and paying a fee. Decode was unable to independently verify how Bhardwaj received invitations to either event.

After the podcast surfaced, the politicians Bhardwaj had named scrambled to distance themselves. Chirag Paswan filed a complaint at Parliament Street police station accusing Bhardwaj of misusing his name.

Advocate Sushil Kumar, national president of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) legal cell, who submitted the complaint on Paswan's behalf, told Decode: "These allegations are false. We stand with the girl and her father and want legal action to be taken in accordance with the law."

Kapil Mishra has not responded publicly to Bhardwaj's claims. 

The assault took place during a CJP protest at Jantar Mantar on June 23, 2026. According to FIR No. 0062 registered at Parliament Street police station, Sanjay Kumar said he was filming his daughter and the protest when Bhardwaj questioned why he was recording him. After Kumar said he was filming the demonstration, Bhardwaj allegedly abused and assaulted him along with two or three others, striking him on the head with a metal bracelet.

The FIR also names a co-accused, Suraj Kumar, 24, from Nalanda, Bihar. He has not been arrested, the lawyers in the case confirmed to Decode. An assistant to the SHO of Parliament Street police station said no action had been taken against Suraj Kumar and that he had no confirmation regarding his arrest.

Delhi Police posted a fact-check on X stating that the claim of a "cracked skull" was "not supported by facts/MLC and is completely baseless." Police said Sanjay Kumar suffered a head injury from a kada during a scuffle, that doctors at RML Hospital described the injuries as "simple in nature," and that the injury was caused "not by any weapon."

For two months, Sanjay Kumar says, nothing happened. He told Decode that he had been visiting Parliament Street police station without getting a response. Action came only after Bhardwaj's podcast admission went viral and public pressure mounted — including an appeal for help from his daughter.

Nishu Azad, 14, told Decode, "I am a Bahujan content creator and Swatantra objected to my views. That is why the attack happened."

Meanwhile, Bhardwaj kept posting. On July 22 — two days after violent clashes between police and protesters during the Sansad March — he uploaded a video from Jantar Mantar showing himself holding a police baton. "Some people were asking where these goons in plain clothes had come from," he said. "They were actually police personnel. But now the real goons have entered the scene. And now we will show you what hooliganism looks like in Delhi. In honour of the Delhi Police, all Sanatanis are on the ground." The reel has 796,000 views.

On Instagram, around the same time, he posted a photo of his kada with the caption "Feel the power!" — an apparent taunt, given that Delhi Police had attributed Kumar's injuries to a kada.

When asked about the delay in acting against Bhardwaj, DCP New Delhi Sachin Sharma told Decode: "We took immediate action against him. After that, we received a complaint, based on which additional sections were added. That complaint had not been received earlier. The rest will be clear during the investigation."

When asked about Bhardwaj's claim that he operated as Delhi Police, Sharma said:

"Anyone can make such claims. You can find all kinds of things in the market. We also buy things from the market. Does anything have a stamp saying that it is a police shoe? People can claim anything, but facts remain facts."

The legal unravelling

After the podcast went viral on September 3, events accelerated. CJP representatives — accompanied by Azad Samaj Party chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad — met police officials at Parliament Street police station, demanding action. They sought charges of attempted murder, criminal intimidation, and invocation of the SC/ST Act, along with a separate FIR over online threats against Nishu Azad.

On September 4, Delhi Police detained Bhardwaj in Bulandshahr. Provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and criminal intimidation were added to FIR No. 62/2026.

On September 5, a separate FIR was registered under the POCSO Act, based on a complaint by Nishu Azad alleging rape threats, morphed images, and online harassment. Sections under BNS 351(3), 78 (stalking), and 79 (insulting the modesty of a woman), along with Section 67 of the IT Act, were also invoked.

That same day, Bhardwaj was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler and sent to one day of police custody. On September 7, a Delhi court sent him to 14 days of judicial custody. He is next due in court on September 21.

His father, Randhir Kumar Jha, filed a habeas corpus petition in the Delhi High Court through lawyer Umesh Sharma, arguing that the FIR under which Bhardwaj was arrested had been quashed by the Supreme Court. Delhi Police counsel Sanjay Lao responded that the SC had quashed FIRs linked to the July 20–25 CJP protests under Article 142, but that this FIR — registered over the June 23 assault — was not among them. The HC rejected the petition, holding that habeas corpus was not maintainable since judicial orders authorizing custody already existed.

Sharma told Decode: "Their argument was that since the Supreme Court had ordered all the FIRs to be quashed on September 3, Swatantra should not have been arrested. The Delhi Police argued that this FIR had not been quashed. After that, the court asked us to file a bail application. However, we are yet to receive the court order."

Bhardwaj's own lawyer, Piyush Jain, was blunt in his assessment of the habeas corpus strategy — which was filed by a different lawyer, on behalf of Bhardwaj's father. "A wrong petition was filed," Jain told Decode.

"A habeas corpus petition is filed when the police pick someone up and their whereabouts become unknown. In this case, the police produced him before a magistrate twice. There is a court record of his appearances. The petition was dismissed on this ground."

Jain drew a further distinction that may shape the bail application: "This FIR relates to a personal dispute and not the protest, so the two matters are separate." He told Decode he met Bhardwaj in Tihar Jail and asked him to end a hunger strike he had begun inside, and that a bail petition would be filed soon.

After Bhardwaj's arrest, a counter-mobilization also began. Thakur, Chaudhary, and right-wing advocate Amita Sachdeva filed separate complaints against Sanjay Kumar and Nishu Azad, alleging derogatory comments about Hindu deities. No FIR has been registered on any of these complaints. Sachdeva told Decode: "We will wait for a few days. If they do not take any action, we will approach the court." Parliament Street police station declined to provide Decode with details on whether any action had been taken on the complaints.

On 10 September, the Supreme Court said allegations of intimidation of the 14-year-old girl who participated in the protests “cannot be taken lightly”. The court said no one should be allowed to threaten or pressure the victim or her family from pursuing the case. The issue came up after the court was told that a counter-FIR had been filed against the girl, while those accused of assaulting and intimidating her remained free.

Ajit Jha, Bhardwaj's uncle, told Decode that the family saw the political activity as a problem long before the arrest.

"His parents would often advise him to stay away from such matters because they are both government employees and are connected to the administration," Ajit Jha said.

But he also framed the situation differently from the public narrative. "A video of Nishu's father had also surfaced in which he said that if the police and administration had not intervened, he would have dealt with Swatantra Bhardwaj himself," Jha said. "Yet, one side is being portrayed entirely as the villain and the other as completely innocent. So, I think this is a political stunt."

He pointed to the two-month gap before the arrest. "If Swatantra had made a mistake, action should have been taken against him at the time. What is the point of forcing the police to register an FIR and invoke the SC/ST Act two months later?"

And he offered a theory: "Swatantra had been raising the issue of reservation based on economic criteria for the past few days. I feel there was an attempt to trap and implicate him."