Bengaluru Police have denied permission for a Tiranga March planned from Town Hall to the Quit India Memorial, saying protests must be held at Freedom Park under a Karnataka High Court order.
The march, organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in association with Jagruta Karnataka, AISA Karnataka and My Vote, My Right, was scheduled to begin at Town Hall at 4pm on Friday. The organisers said it was being held in solidarity with CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka and spokesperson Saurav Das.
A senior police officer told PTI that permission was refused because the organisers had sought to hold the march at Town Hall. According to the officer, the High Court order designates Freedom Park as the venue for protests in Bengaluru.
The police decision places the proposed march within the city’s existing framework for regulating demonstrations. Freedom Park has been designated as the protest site under the court order cited by the police, while the organisers had planned a route linking two prominent public locations in central Bengaluru: Town Hall and the Quit India Memorial.
The report did not specify whether the organisers had sought an alternative permission for Freedom Park or whether the march would be shifted to the designated venue. It also did not indicate whether the organisers planned to challenge the police decision or proceed with any revised programme.
The proposed demonstration was linked to the detention and subsequent judicial custody of Ranka and Das in Delhi. PTI reported that the two leaders were sent to five days of judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail on October 14 for allegedly violating peace bonds and trespassing into Jantar Mantar, which has been denotified as a protest site.
Ranka and Das had signed bonds undertaking to maintain peace for a year after being detained the previous week, according to the report. The Bengaluru march was described as a solidarity action connected to their case.
The police refusal means that the planned Town Hall-to-Quit India Memorial route cannot proceed with permission in its proposed form. Any further action by the organisers will depend on whether they seek permission for Freedom Park or announce a different course, while the police position remains tied to the venue requirement cited from the High Court order.
