Delhi court rejects anticipatory bail plea of YouTuber Ajeet Bharti
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A Delhi court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of YouTuber and reservation reform activist Ajeet Bharti in a case registered against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The case was registered at Delhi’s North Avenue police station in August following a complaint by the Delhi unit president of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), led by Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad.
During Monday’s proceedings, Bharti’s lawyer argued that he had not used a casteist slur and had instead responded to what he described as serious provocation involving a family member. Delhi Police opposed the maintainability of the anticipatory bail plea, saying there was no reason to assume that Bharti would be arrested merely because an FIR had been registered.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh dismissed Bharti’s plea. A detailed order is awaited.
The complaint relates to a clip from Bharti’s August 22 YouTube broadcast, “SB79: Reservation Hatao Andolan Nautanki & More | Saptahik Bakaiti”, in which he was accused of making casteist, abusive and objectionable remarks against Azad.
According to the complaint, Bharti responded to a viewer who suggested that he marry his sister to Chandrashekhar Azad by making derogatory remarks about the MP and referring to a caste term. He also made sexually explicit and abusive comments directed at the commenter’s family.
Bharti had denied using a casteist word against Azad and described the FIR as “pressure-driven”, claiming it would not stand in court.
Bharti has been among influencers campaigning for reforms to caste-based reservations and opposing the now-stayed UGC equity regulations, which he has described as unfairly targeting upper castes. The remarks came a day after thousands gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar opposing the UGC norms and seeking changes to reservation policies.
The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act provides legal protections against caste-based offences and contains provisions affecting anticipatory bail in applicable cases.