Das and Ranka were initially remanded to five days of judicial custody on October 14 after being detained for allegedly entering Jantar Mantar, which had been denotified as a designated protest site, and violating peace bonds.
NEW DELHI: A special executive magistrate (SEM) court in Delhi on Wednesday accepted the surety bonds of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka and ordered their release, officials said.The court said they may be released from jail if they are not in custody in any other case. The order came after Delhi Police sought a three-day extension of their judicial custody.The two leaders have been in police custody for 7 days.
The CJP founder and leader Abhijeet Dipke shared his reaction to the court's release order. Taking to his X account, Dipke shared a clip from the climax scene of Shah Rukh Khan's movie Chak De India.
High court asks activists to pursue alternative remedy
Earlier in the day, Das and Ranka challenged the extension of their custody before the Delhi high court. The court asked them to await the SEM's decision and approach the appropriate appellate or revisional forum if their grievance persisted. The activists subsequently withdrew their plea.Delhi HC also questioned why they had invoked its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution when an alternative legal remedy was available.
“Your second incident. You are a person who has actually broken a bond. Your remedy actually lies in revision,” the court observed while hearing the challenge to the SEM's October 19 order.The bench also questioned whether authorities could impose stricter surety conditions following an alleged second breach of a peace bond.“Once you have broken peace for the second time, are the authorities not entitled to insist upon everything?” the court asked.The court further expressed concern that breaching barricades at Jantar Mantar could encourage others to violate prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).“The two petitioners here are at the forefront. When you go and break a barricade, the chances of 10 or 20 more people in violation of 163 are very high,” the court observed.
Advocate Abhik Chimni, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the SEM lacked jurisdiction to extend their custody and that their sureties had been wrongly rejected.
The High Court clarified that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case before permitting the withdrawal of the plea.
detained after Jantar Mantar protest
Das and Ranka were initially remanded to five days of judicial custody on October 14 after being detained for allegedly entering Jantar Mantar, which had been denotified as a designated protest site, and violating peace bonds. Their custody was extended by two days on October 19.The activists challenged the extension under Sections 126 and 170 of the BNSS, arguing that their continued detention was illegal and that the allegations did not establish an imminent threat to peace and tranquillity.