Dipke claims Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka's arrest being deliberately prolonged (Photo: PTI).
NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Sunday accused the state of intentionally prolonging Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka's arrest in order to delay court proceedings and delay their release."The state is deliberately prolonging Ashu and Saurav’s illegal arrest by using every dirty trick in the book to delay court proceedings and prevent their release," Dipke said in an X post."They have no legal grounds to keep them behind bars, so they are resorting to delaying tactics to keep them there," he added.
On October 14, Das and Ranka were sent to five days of judicial custody after they entered Jantar Mantar, a site denotified for designated protest, by scaling its locked gates.
The CJP leaders said they had unfurled the national flag and raised slogans.CJP's legal head Ratna Singh, who was present in the court for hearing on the matter accused the Special Executive Magistrate of "arbitrary remarks" and deliberately delaying the hearing, PTI reported."We have been here since morning. We were told that the entire hearing would take place at 12.00 pm. Today, everything was complete, the verification was done, and all requirements were met.
We have been waiting here since noon. The SEM (Special Executive Magistrate) was at the police station by 1:30 pm, but he did not enter the courtroom until 5.00 pm," Singh said, as per PTI."When he finally arrived, he refused to hear our case on its merits regarding whether Saurav and Ashutosh should be released from judicial custody. Instead, he made arbitrary remarks," she added.Singh alleged that within about five minutes of the proceedings, the SEM told the court that he had received a threatening message.
From that point onwards, the entire discussion was focused solely on the message."It is clear that this entire episode was orchestrated," Singh alleged, "They had decided beforehand to come into the courtroom and focus exclusively on this alleged threatening message, completely bypassing whether the formalities required for Saurav and Ashutosh's release were fulfilled."
There was no response from police on the allegations yet. PTI reportedOn Saturday, the CJP said in a post on X that it had consulted senior advocate Kapil Sibal and warned of legal action if Das and Ranka were not released by Sunday.“If Ashu and Saurav are not released by tomorrow, we will pursue legal action against all those who deliberately ensured that they continue to be in illegal custody, especially when they have not committed nor charged with any offence,” the outfit said.“The deliberate use of delaying tactics to keep them behind bars cannot go unchallenged. Those responsible will be held accountable,” it added.