Delhi court sends CJP leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka to 5-day judicial custody over Jantar Mantar protest

New Delhi: A Delhi Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) Court on Wednesday remanded Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka to five days of judicial custody following their preventive detention by Delhi Police over allegations that they attempted to enter Jantar Mantar on October 13. Another party leader, Ajinkya Shinde, has been released on a personal bond.

Delhi Police registered an FIR against the three CJP leaders and several others on Tuesday for allegedly attempting to enter Jantar Mantar, a day after the site was de-notified as a designated protest venue.

According to the allegations, the group climbed over locked gates and police barricades while carrying the Indian national flag and raising slogans, before security personnel intercepted them. The FIR invokes charges relating to unlawful assembly and disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant.

The three leaders were detained on Tuesday morning and initially taken to Jaffarpur Kalan police station. They were subsequently shifted to Parliament Street Police Station in the early hours of October 14.

CJP’s head of legal affairs, Ratna Singh, had said in a post on X that the leaders would be produced before the SEM Court on Wednesday morning, adding that they could be sent to Tihar Jail in judicial custody. She also alleged that the leaders had not been allowed to meet their lawyers until late Tuesday night.

The CJP leaders had previously been detained after landing in Delhi to participate in a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They were later released following an order by an SEM Court, which directed them to furnish a statutory bond undertaking that they would not disturb public peace or engage in any activity likely to cause a breach of peace.