Fourteen members of the Cockroach Janta Party, including leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde, were detained in Delhi on Tuesday after allegedly entering the barricaded Jantar Mantar protest site through a narrow lane behind the Janata Dal (United) office, according to police sources cited by The Indian Express.
The detention followed the Delhi Police’s announcement on Monday that Jantar Mantar was no longer a “designated site” for protests. The CJP had issued a 24-hour ultimatum seeking a date to hold an agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at the location.
Police had deployed personnel on the main roads around Jantar Mantar and barricaded its gates. According to the report, the group allegedly used a relatively lightly guarded lane connecting to Janpath Lane, reached the JD(U) office premises and climbed over a locked iron gate to enter the protest site. The members then unfurled the Tricolour and raised slogans before being detained.
The CJP had allegedly conducted a reconnaissance of the area on Monday night to identify an access route. The party also shared a video of the entry on social media. Police sources said Ranka was carrying the national flag while other members raised slogans including “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Inquilab Zindabad”.
The group was taken to Jafrabad police station, around 40 kilometres from Jantar Mantar, and remained in detention since the morning, the report said. Police had not taken a final decision on whether to formally arrest the members, register a first information report, begin further investigation or continue the detention.
Advocate Pushp Sharma, who is representing the detained members, told The Indian Express that he had been trying to contact police officers to establish where the group was being held and whether they would be arrested or released. Sharma said he had been in touch with Ranka around the time of the detention, but Ranka’s last message indicated that the members’ phones were being taken away.
According to Sharma, police officers told him that the group had not been arrested but cited the detention as the reason lawyers were not being allowed to meet them. The report did not record a final police decision on the legal status of the detainees.
Ranka and Das had been released on Sunday after 24 hours in preventive detention. Their release was subject to a condition that they would not engage in activity capable of disturbing public peace for one year. The latest detention comes as access to Jantar Mantar, historically used for public demonstrations, is being reconsidered by Delhi Police.
