New Delhi: Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, hours after a Delhi court extended the judicial custody of party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka by two days, ANI reported.
In a video shared on X, Dipke alleged that the government was deploying police, barricades and court procedures to muzzle young voices protesting in the national capital.
“Narendra Modi, you must be feeling very strong right now. Keeping a 26-year-old Saurav Das in jail must make you feel very strong. Beating up children on the streets, deploying barricades all across Delhi, and dragging all the students on the streets, you must feel very strong,” Dipke said.
Das and Ranka were sent to judicial custody after their protest at Jantar Mantar. Dipke alleged that hearings in the matter were being repeatedly deferred, preventing an early resolution of the case.
Custody Extended Again
“Saurav and Ashutosh went to Jantar Mantar to hoist the Tricolour, for which they were sent to five days of judicial custody, and after that, their hearing wasn’t even allowed to take place. On one pretext or another, the hearing was postponed every single day,” he said.
The CJP founder also questioned the government’s use of state institutions against the two detained leaders, arguing that jailing young protesters did not demonstrate political strength.
“Is this strength? Hiding behind the police… hiding behind the courts is this the strength of Narendra Modi? Using the entire state machinery against two kids who would have been the age of Modi’s grandchildren if he had a family, if he had his own children, Saurav and Ashu are the age of his grandchildren. By keeping them in jail, do you feel very strong? Or rather, I don’t know, do you feel like a powerful Prime Minister?”
Calling the leadership’s response defensive, Dipke said genuine courage was reflected in Das’s conduct during incarceration.
“You are just a coward. Let me tell you what real strength is. After spending five days in jail, Saurav Das, a 27-year-old who had never imagined in his life that he would ever go to jail. Once, when someone asked him in jail how many days he would be able to survive, he used to say, “I won’t even survive a single day,” Abhijeet Dipke said.
Surety rejected, custody extended
Das and Ranka were sent back to judicial custody after the court rejected their sureties over an alleged mismatch in documents, their lawyers said.
CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh alleged that the court was repeatedly raising technical issues to keep the leaders in custody.
“A mockery was going on in the Court. For the last six days, we have been saying that one or the other reason is being nitpicked – surety verification has not been done, that an FIR has been lodged against the surety. We saw someone’s liberty being curtailed,” Singh said.
Lawyer Disappointed
Advocate Abhik Chimni, counsel for Das and Ranka, said he was disappointed with the order. He said the case involved preventive custody and that the court had earlier sought sureties instead of sending them to judicial custody.
Das, Ranka and other CJP members were arrested by Delhi Police on October 12 for allegedly trespassing at Jantar Mantar, which is no longer a designated protest site. Das and Ranka were later sent to five days of judicial custody.
