The Cockroach Janta Party’s legal team has applied to the Special Executive Magistrate for the release of Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka from judicial custody after placing their surety documents on record.
According to the legal team, the two were sent to judicial custody because their sureties were unavailable on the day of their detention. A decision on their release is expected by Sunday afternoon.
Sources told India Today that Delhi Police were verifying the sureties.
Das and Ranka were sent to Tihar Jail for five days on Wednesday. Police said they had violated peace bonds and trespassed into Jantar Mantar, which had recently been removed from the list of designated protest sites.
Their associate, Ajinkya Shinde, was allowed to leave after signing a peace bond.
Police cited repeated violations and concerns that Das and Ranka could disturb public peace or instigate others. The two had signed bonds undertaking to maintain peace for a year after an earlier detention during a protest.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke accused the government of suppressing dissent. “Ashu and Saurav have been sent to five days’ judicial custody. Their fault? Unfurling the Tricolour at Jantar Mantar,” he wrote on X.
The detentions came amid CJP protests over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and restrictions on demonstrations at Jantar Mantar.
An October 11 order by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar designated Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground as protest venues, effectively removing Jantar Mantar from the list.
The CJP has opposed the move, arguing that shifting protests away from the capital’s political centre would make public dissent less visible.
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