Delhi Police detained more than 500 protesters across the national capital on October 10, including leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), before a planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the rollback of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained after arriving in Delhi to attend the protest, according to The Hindu, which cited a source in intelligence agencies. The three were taken to separate locations in Delhi-NCR, the report said.
Ratna Singh, the CJP’s legal affairs head, said she was detained outside her residence in Jangpura, New Delhi, while preparing to join a gathering of lawyers who planned to protest outside the Supreme Court before the Jantar Mantar demonstration. She told The Hindu that Delhi Police personnel arrived at her residence at about 8.45 a.m. and attempted to enter. Her flatmate, a lawyer, stopped them, saying they could not enter or search the house without a warrant, according to her account.
Singh said she was later sitting in a friend’s car outside the residence with advocates Tara Narula and Shivangi Sharma when Delhi Police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel surrounded the vehicle. She said police officials told her there were “verbal orders from above” requiring her detention. Her account has been attributed to her and was not independently confirmed in the supplied report.
The CJP alleged that the detentions were intended to prevent its leaders from reaching the protest site. In a statement, the party described the action as a “pre-planned interception” and demanded the release of Dipke, Das and Ranka. The planned protest was called by the CJP and several Left organisations.
Singh subsequently moved an application before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Abhinav Pandey at the Saket District Court, alleging that she was being “wrongfully confined” by police personnel outside her residence. The application sought urgent directions under Sections 175(3) and 174 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita for registration of a first information report or non-cognisable report against those allegedly responsible for restraining her.
The application also sought a status report on the police presence outside her residence and the circumstances in which she was allegedly prevented from leaving. It stated that Singh apprehended a threat to her liberty, safety, bodily integrity and life, and that she had repeatedly asked the police under what legal authority she was being detained or restrained.
Lawyers representing Singh told The Hindu that the application was filed at about 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, but that the court had not passed directions by the time of publication. The immediate legal status of the other detained protesters was not provided in the supplied report.
