Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde, along with other party volunteers, after they entered the Jantar Mantar protest site on Tuesday morning, a day after the police announced that the central Delhi location was no longer a designated site for protests.
According to police sources cited by The Indian Express, around six CJP members are suspected to have entered the premises of the Janata Dal (United) office next to Jantar Mantar and scaled the boundary wall to access the protest site. Security personnel stationed at the barricades detained the group as soon as they entered, police said. The detainees were taken to Jafarpur Kalan police station, and legal action would be initiated over the alleged security breach, according to the police.
The incident followed a 24-hour ultimatum issued by the CJP on Monday. The group had demanded that Delhi Police allot a date and time for its proposed demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The party had been seeking permission to hold the protest at Jantar Mantar since October 10.
The CJP shared a video of the incident on social media showing Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das jumping over an iron gate to enter the site. Ranka was carrying the national flag, while other members were heard raising slogans. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke said in a post on X that the leaders had been detained after entering Jantar Mantar and wrote, “You cannot denotify the resistance,” while criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The detention is the latest development in a series of confrontations between the party and police in central Delhi. On Monday, Das said the police normally asked protest organisers to approach them at least 10 days in advance, but the CJP was giving the department 24 hours to specify a date and time for its demonstration. Five people, including Ranka, Das, their lawyer and two members of the North Zone team, had also gone to Parliament Street Police Station to demand a date for the protest.
The group has alleged that several members were assaulted by police personnel during detentions over the previous three days. The report did not include a response from Delhi Police to that allegation. The CJP’s three senior leaders—Dipke, Das and Ranka—were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport earlier and kept under preventive arrest for 24 hours before being released on Sunday on a condition prohibiting a breach of peace for a year, according to the report.
Security arrangements in central Delhi had intensified during the earlier protests, with around 30,000 personnel deployed and multiple layers of barricades installed around Jantar Mantar. After the police announced that the site was no longer designated for protests on Monday, the number of security personnel was reduced and some public access restrictions were relaxed.
The immediate dispute now concerns both the proposed CJP demonstration and the administrative status of Jantar Mantar, historically used for organised protests in the capital. Police have not publicly announced a new date for the demonstration in the material supplied for this report. Legal action over Tuesday’s alleged entry into the protest premises is expected to follow, according to police sources.
