Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) national organisation in-charge Ajinkya Shinde and leaders Saurabh Das and Ashutosh Ranka at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday after they allegedly entered the protest site by climbing over a gate and attempted to stage a demonstration. The detention came two days after Jantar Mantar was removed from the official list of designated protest venues, according to a report by Live Hindustan – NCR.
The incident highlights the immediate consequences of changes to access and protest arrangements at one of central Delhi’s best-known demonstration sites. The report said CJP leaders reached Jantar Mantar through an alternative route after observing security checks on the main approach roads. Members of the group then entered by crossing a gate.
Security personnel already deployed at the site became alert after the group entered and detained the leaders and some members of their team. Police later placed them in a vehicle and took them away. The protesters raised slogans including “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and demanded the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, according to the report.
The reported detention followed an earlier series of arrests involving senior CJP figures. On 10 October, CJP leaders Abhijit Dipke, Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh were detained, while German YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who had arrived to support the demonstration, was also taken into custody, the report said.
With several senior leaders detained, the party assigned Shinde responsibility for leading the movement. Dipke announced the decision through a pre-recorded video, saying Shinde would lead the protest in the absence of the other leaders. Shinde had arrived in Delhi three days before the earlier demonstration and was among the CJP leaders who were not detained at that time.
The report said the party had kept Shinde available as an alternative leader while other senior figures were in custody. After the detained leaders were released, Dipke returned to his home in Maharashtra following the death of his grandmother. Shinde subsequently decided to join the attempt to demonstrate at Jantar Mantar, where the party expected that participants would be detained.
CJP described the latest entry into the site as a victory and said it had breached the “fortress” of Jantar Mantar. The report did not provide details of the legal sections applied by Delhi Police, the duration of the detention, or whether the detained leaders were later released.
The episode also places renewed attention on the administrative control of designated protest spaces in central Delhi. When a site is removed from an official list, access arrangements, police deployment and the options available to demonstrators can change quickly. In this case, the group’s attempt to enter through a less-protected route was followed by an immediate security response.
The report did not include a separate statement from Delhi Police explaining the removal of Jantar Mantar from the official protest-site list or outlining the precise restrictions in force. Further details on the police action and the status of those detained remain pending.
