Viral video of Swatantra Bhardwaj threatening Bhim Army chief predates his September 17 release on interim bail

Soon after the news of Hindutva fanatic Swatantra Bhardwaj getting interim bail for three weeks went out, a 1.16-minute video of him got viral, in which he is with another person who boasts about Bhardwaj’s release and compares him with a lion on the hunt. Bhardwaj then threatens those who had attacked his supporters while he was in detention. He says (in Hindi), “You are like insects.. why did you target my brothers? if they wanted they could have beaten you up.. but for some reason, they followed the law… I will not do anything to you.. tell your father Chandrashekhar Azad (Bhim Army chief whom Bhardwaj compares to Ravana), that this Brahmin lion (referring to himself) will avenge the attack. It is an open challenge…”

Bhardwaj faces criminal charges under Sections 115(2), 126(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the POCSO Act and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and an attempt-to-murder charge for an alleged assault on the father of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) activist Nishu Azaad. On September 7, he had been sent to 14-day judicial remand.

An X user named Gen-Z of India shared the said video on September 17 and wrote (in Hindi), “As soon as Swatantra Bharadwaj stepped out, he started up again, even though the court had imposed the condition that he would not make any grandstanding statements in the media, but listen to what he is saying.” The post has received close to 1 million views. (Archive)

भारतीय न्याय व्यवस्था एक बार फिर से फ़ैल हो गयी है…
स्वतंत्र भारद्वाज बाहर आते ही फ़िर से शुरू हो गया है, जबकि कोर्ट ने शर्त रखी है कि मीडिया में कोई बयानबाज़ी नहीं करेगा लेकिन यह तो क्या कह रहा है वह सुनिए। pic.twitter.com/pBPNKeQtRs

— Gen-Z of India (@GenZ_of_India_) September 17, 2026

This post was reshared by several influential and verified handles, including Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, journalist Vir Sanghvi, CJP leader Ratna Singh and others, making it go viral. Others like film writer Darab Farooqui and verified X user @tanmoyofc shared the video as well.

Media outlets Prabhat Khabar and The Mooknayak published reports on the video presenting it as recorded after Bhardwaj’s release on bail in the assault case.

Fact Check

First of all, we found that India Today posted a video on September 17 stating that Bhardwaj came out of Tihar Jail around 9.45 pm on that day (September 17). The caption of India Today’s Instagram post said, “Although he was granted bail two days ago, he was released around 9:45 pm after the remaining procedures were completed. He immediately ran towards a taxi and left without speaking to the media.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by India Today (@indiatoday)

Several other media outlets reported that Bhardwaj walked out of jail late at night on Thursday, September 17, and rushed into a car avoiding media persons.

Next, a reverse image search with some key frames from the viral video led us to a Facebook post and a YouTube video from September 7. This makes it clear that the video was not recorded after Bhardwaj’s release on September 17. Check the screenshots in the gallery below:

Click to view slideshow.

By scraping our database of active Right-wing vigilantes, we then identified the other individual in the video as Vaibhaw Kumar alias Vaibhaw Pandey. While going through his Instagram timeline, we found the now-viral video uploaded on June 26.

According to another video posted by Vaibhaw, Bhardwaj was detained on June 22 for threatening CJP leaders at Jantar Mantar.

To sum up, the viral video of Hindutva fanatic and attempt-to-murder accused Swatantra Bhardwaj threatening Chandrashekhar Azad was not recorded after his release on interim bail on September 17. It was shared on social media by another Hindutva vigilante on June 26.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

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