The judicial custody of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das was extended by two days on the day of their scheduled proceedings. The two leaders will remain in Tihar Jail and are expected to be produced again on Wednesday.
Ranka and Das were brought before a Special Executive Magistrate at Mandir Marg police station and were subsequently taken back to prison. They had initially been placed in five-day judicial custody on October 14, a day after their arrest.
The leaders were detained on October 13 after allegedly entering Delhi’s Jantar Mantar by climbing over its locked gates. The site had recently been denotified as a designated protest venue.
The CJP has accused the authorities of intentionally delaying the proceedings to prevent the release of the two leaders. The party maintains that Ranka and Das entered the premises to unfurl the national flag and raise slogans. It has also continued to oppose the decision to withdraw Jantar Mantar’s status as an authorised protest site.
CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke alleged in a social media post yesterday that the state was using repeated delays to keep Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das behind bars. He claimed that there were no legal grounds for their continued detention and accused the authorities of adopting delaying tactics.
Ratna Singh, the party’s legal head, also alleged that the Delhi Police and state authorities had obstructed the proceedings before the Special Executive Magistrate. She claimed that a hearing scheduled for noon was delayed by several hours.
The arrests came during the CJP’s campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The party has said that the revision exercise could threaten voters’ rights, making it a key issue in its protests against the Election Commission. Through its actions at Jantar Mantar, the CJP has also argued that the venue’s denotification should not prevent its members from holding demonstrations.
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