New Delhi: A day after three senior functionaries of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were detained at Delhi airport, the outfit said it would make a fresh attempt on Monday to secure permission for a peaceful demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka announced that he would be accompanied by fellow co-convenor Saurav Das, legal head Ratna Singh and other party leaders to the Parliament Street Police Station at 10 am, where they would formally request the police to fix a date for the proposed agitation.
“Delhi Police can give us a date for Jantar Mantar in 24 hours, else the CJP will give another protest call,” Ranka said in a post on X on Sunday.
The party’s original plan was to hold its protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday. The demonstration was intended to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom the CJP has accused of presiding over irregularities in electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
Leaders Detained On Arrival
The proposed protest, however, ran into heavy police restrictions across the capital. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, Ranka and Das were detained shortly after their flight from Mumbai touched down at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday.
According to the leaders, police personnel entered the aircraft and removed them before they could proceed towards the protest venue. They claimed that no written grounds were shown to them at the time of their detention, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Their detention took place amid extensive security arrangements and movement restrictions in parts of Delhi, as authorities sought to prevent large gatherings from reaching central Delhi for the planned demonstration.
Magistrate Orders Release
The three CJP leaders were produced before an executive magistrate and released on Sunday. Soon after coming out, they repeated allegations that they had been mistreated during custody.
They said their mobile phones had been taken away and that they were not allowed to contact or consult lawyers while they were detained. The party has described the action as an attempt to silence dissent and obstruct a lawful protest.
Ranka compared the situation to the Emergency era, alleging that trains were cancelled and protesters harassed to stop them from travelling to Delhi. He said the measures were aimed at preventing citizens from raising questions before the Election Commission.
Agitation To Continue
Despite the detentions and restrictions, the CJP leadership said it would not abandon its demand. The party accused the authorities of deliberately preventing people from protesting against the Election Commission and the alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
The leaders maintained that they would continue to press for a fresh date at Jantar Mantar and warned of another call for protest if the police did not respond within the deadline set by Ranka.