Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal also attacked the government, alleging that a person accused of violence could publicly invoke his links with senior political leaders without fear of punishment.
“This is a regime of the thugs, the street goons, the rabid criminals,” Venugopal said in a post on X. He added that the Congress stood with Nishu and her father and would fight until they received justice.
Reacting to Gandhi’s intervention, Nishu said she had not expected him to raise the matter publicly and expressed hope that his support would help secure action against Bhardwaj.
“Now that I’ve got the support of a big leader like Rahul Gandhi ji, I’ll get justice, and Swatantra Bhardwaj will have to go to jail,” she said.
In an earlier video appeal, Nishu alleged that Bhardwaj had himself admitted to causing serious injuries to her father. She argued that he should have been booked for attempted murder and claimed that no effective action had been taken despite an FIR being registered more than a month and a half ago.
“The police are not doing anything and are befooling us in the name of medical examination,” she alleged, adding that she had turned to Gandhi after losing hope of receiving assistance from the authorities.
Nishu said people accused of such attacks should be imprisoned, particularly when they appeared to speak proudly about their alleged actions.
In the video circulating online, Bhardwaj is purportedly heard claiming responsibility for injuring Sanjay and acknowledging that the alleged offence could attract a charge of attempted murder.
“I cracked the skull of Nishu’s father,” he is heard saying, before claiming that the injured man needed 60 stitches and was taken away in an ambulance. Bhardwaj also purportedly said that he had not been jailed and remained free throughout the night.
He is further heard invoking the names of Mishra, Union minister Chirag Paswan and Modi while claiming that he had political support. These claims have not been independently verified.
The Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Citizens for Justice and Peace also targeted the BJP after the video emerged on social media.
PTI approached Mishra and Paswan for their responses to the allegations, but neither offered a comment.
With IANS inputs
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