CJP's Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka sent to judicial custody over Jantar Mantar entry

Two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were sent to five days of judicial custody on Wednesday, a day after they climbed over the locked gate of Jantar Mantar carrying the national flag.

A Special Executive Magistrate’s court in Delhi passed the remand order. Delhi Police registered an FIR on Tuesday against the two and others, alleging unlawful assembly and disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant. Jantar Mantar had been struck off the list of protest venues a day before they went in.

The two were first held at Jaffarpur Kalan police station on Tuesday and moved to Parliament Street police station in the early hours of Wednesday. Ratna Singh, who heads the CJP’s legal affairs, said they were not allowed to meet their lawyers until late at night and could be sent to Tihar Jail. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke said Ajinkya Shinde, the party’s national organisation in-charge, and several other team members were also picked up on Tuesday. Police have not said what happened to them.

The Supreme Court is due on Thursday to hear the wider set of petitions over the mass detentions during the protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Over the gate

A video Dipke posted shows Das and Ranka scaling the gate with the Tricolour while the group shouts “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Gyanesh Kumar isteefa do”, a call for the Chief Election Commissioner to resign. “Cockroaches with the Tiranga sneaked into Jantar Mantar early this morning before they were picked up by Delhi Police,” Dipke wrote on X. Tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added: “You cannot denotify the resistance.”

Das, Ranka and Dipke had been held on 10 October as well and were released on Sunday on a ₹50,000 surety bond to keep the peace for a year.

In the High Court

Also on Tuesday, Justice Amit Mahajan of the Delhi High Court heard a plea by Indian Youth Congress chief Uday Bhanu Chib, who had been refused permission to protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, for Delhi Police, said the site was de-notified on the strength of the Supreme Court’s 9 October order, which had asked authorities to consider identifying suitable alternative venues for peaceful protest. “The Court said appropriate sites need to be identified and designated and we have precisely done that,” he said. Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground have been named instead, and Sharma argued that the plea had become infructuous.

The judge did not accept that the case was over. Over the ASG’s objection, he issued notice on three of Chib’s prayers, including a challenge to the police rule requiring 10 days’ notice for a protest and a plea that a 2022 standing order cannot be used to restrict peaceful assemblies mechanically.

Supreme Court puts off the detention cases

In the Supreme Court, the detention and contempt petitions over the weekend crackdown were due before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. With Justice Mohana unwell, the parties agreed to take them up on Thursday, 15 October. At the Solicitor General’s request, the court gave the government until then to file its compliance report on its earlier directions and its replies to the contempt pleas.

Courts elsewhere

The protests have reached other High Courts. In Mumbai, a bench led by Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi refused interim orders to release people detained during the anti-CEC demonstrations on 10 and 11 October. “We cannot pass such blanket orders. Whatever are the instances you bring those on record, we will take care of it,” the bench said, and listed the case for Monday.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court was told that a woman detained at Itarsi Junction on her way to the CJP protest had been returned to her family. The bench asked the state to show that every such detainee had been sent home.