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 was scheduled to begin at 4pm on Friday. It was organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in association with Jagruta Karnataka, AISA Karnataka and My Vote, My Right.
A senior police officer told news agency PTI that permission was denied because the organisers had selected Town Hall as the starting point, while the High Court order designates Freedom Park as Bengaluru’s venue for protests.
The demonstration was planned in solidarity with CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka and spokesperson Saurav Das. PTI reported that both leaders were sent to five days of judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail on October 14 for allegedly violating their peace bonds and entering Jantar Mantar in Delhi, which has been denotified as a protest site.
Ranka and Das had signed bonds undertaking to maintain peace for one year after being detained the previous week, according to the report. The Bengaluru police decision places the proposed march within the city’s existing framework for regulating public assemblies, under which designated protest locations are used to manage demonstrations in central areas.
The organisers’ planned route was to begin at Town Hall and end at the Quit India Memorial. Police cited the High Court order as the basis for requiring the event to be held at Freedom Park instead. The report did not specify whether the organisers had submitted a revised request for permission at the designated venue.
