A planned protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was largely prevented on October 10 after police detained the organisation’s senior leadership, restricted access to central Delhi and deployed more than 35,000 police and paramilitary personnel, according to Live Hindustan – NCR.
CJP had called supporters to Jantar Mantar at 10am, but its coordinator was detained on a flight travelling from Mumbai to Delhi, the report said. Co-coordinators Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also taken into custody. With the leadership unable to reach the protest site, the planned mobilisation did not take place as expected.
Delhi Police had not granted permission for the protest at Jantar Mantar. Heavy security was deployed from the morning through the evening, while supporters attempting to reach the venue faced multilayer barricading and police checks. The report said that people were detained at different locations during the day, with isolated clashes also reported.
Opposition leaders who attempted to reach Jantar Mantar were also detained, according to the report. Aam Aadmi Party national convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, several Trinamool Congress MPs and AAP leaders were detained between 2pm and 3pm, it said.
The security operation affected the city’s transport network. Entry and exit facilities at more than 45 Metro stations were closed from Friday night, although interchange facilities remained available. Several trains arriving in Delhi were cancelled between 4am and 2pm on Saturday. Security checks were increased at Delhi’s borders with Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.
The arrangements around Jantar Mantar included barricades about 10 feet high, vehicles carrying tear gas and the installation of road spikes at some locations. The report said stones were thrown near Akashvani Bhavan, injuring two police personnel.
The scale of the deployment was substantially larger than the immediate protest venue. Around 15,000 Delhi Police personnel were among the more than 35,000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed in the capital. Security personnel began preparing from October 8, two days before the planned protest.
The measures followed a previous CJP protest that lasted 36 days, from June 20 to July 25, 2026. That mobilisation had ended after demands including the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, according to the report. The earlier protest had also involved heavy police deployment and multilayer barricading, but authorities were reportedly not prepared for the scale of the organisation’s mobilisation at that time.
Live Hindustan – NCR also cited The Indian Express in reporting that the Union Home Secretary had held a meeting with the directors general of police of several states and selected police commissioners six days before the planned protest. The meeting reportedly included instructions to prevent people with experience of participating in such protests from travelling outside their home states, issue notices and detain them where necessary, and investigate the sources of protest funding.
The report did not provide details of the legal grounds for each detention or specify when those detained would be released. Further official information on the detentions, the transport restrictions and the police response remains awaited.
