Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by Delhi Police along with a few others early on Tuesday after they scaled barricades and entered the Jantar Mantar area, waved the national flag and raised slogans against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, defying prohibitory orders.
Delhi Police have registered an FIR under trespass charges against Ranka, Das and others.
The Centre on Monday denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
“You cannot denotify resistance,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke posted on X later in the day, tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The outfit described its action as “reclaiming” Jantar Mantar and their right to protest, saying its members had entered the heavily barricaded site and hoisted the Tricolour there.
“Fortress Jantar Mantar has been reclaimed,” the CJP said in a statement.
The youth-led organisation, whose 36-day dharna at Jantar Mantar led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over NEET paper leaks, condemned the move to denotify the protest site.
Dipke, Das and Ranka had been detained on Saturday as soon as their flight landed in Delhi following a major security clampdown by the authorities to thwart a planned protest by the CJP at Jantar Mantar to press for Gyanesh’s resignation. They were released a day later on the condition that they would not “breach peace” for a year.
However, the defiant CJP leadership had vowed to expand their agitation till the CEC resigns, asserting that “protesting at a designated protest spot is not disturbing peace”.
According to the CJP, around 14 of its members, including Ranka, Das and Ajinkya Shinde, were detained on Tuesday.
CJP spokesperson Ratna Singh said those detained had been taken to Jaffarpur Kalan police station.
“Now the SHO (station house officer) of Jaffarpur Kalan police station has refused to let our lawyer meet them, while their phones have been confiscated. This raises serious concerns,” Singh alleged, asking under what legal authority were the CJP leaders being detained and why they were being denied access to their lawyer.
“When lawyers themselves are standing at police station gates demanding compliance with the law, where are the safeguards? Why are the courts allowing this to happen? Protecting every individual’s constitutional rights is not optional — it is the judiciary’s responsibility,” Singh said, demanding the release of Das, Ranka and the others.
Their legal representative Pushp Sharma told PTI that 14 CJP members, including Das and Ranka, were brought to Jaffarpur Kalan police station around 9.30am and that their lawyers had not been allowed to meet them despite repeated requests.
In a post on X, Dipke said: “Cockroaches with the Tiranga sneaked into Jantar Mantar early this morning before they were picked up by Delhi Police.”
He shared a video showing CJP members running towards the heavily barricaded protest site, scaling a gate and raising slogans while holding a Tricolour, before being held by police personnel.
“If the government believes that removing Jantar Mantar from the list of designated protest sites will silence people demanding accountability, it has misunderstood what this movement stands for. Jantar Mantar is not merely a location on a map. It is where citizens have gathered to question those in power, and no administrative order can erase that democratic impulse,” Dipke said.
In a video shot in the detention vehicle, Ranka said: “Jantar Mantar has been breached. The resignation of Gyanesh Kumar will happen at Jantar Mantar. Do what you can.”
The CJP said the denotification announcement was made on October 12, the day the outfit’s representatives approached Parliament Street police station to submit a letter seeking a date and time for their proposed peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar.
“You cannot ask citizens to approach the authorities for permission to protest and then change the rules while they are seeking that permission,” Ranka said.
Das questioned the home ministry’s restrictions on access to the protest site, saying: “Who is the home ministry to take away our Jantar Mantar? This is the designated protest site, and we will get the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar from Jantar Mantar.”
Das posted on X after being detained: “Mark my words — The young gen will get Gyanu’s resignation and will reclaim our right to vote! 40,000+ paramilitary forces and police personnel. But they can’t stop the youth! The right to protest is our fundamental right. No one can ‘denotify’ it.”
CJP spokesperson Mehr Pasricha told a media conference: “You want to move people’s voices away from Jantar Mantar? Move it as far away as you can. Shift it to Punjab, or place the protest site on some Himalayan peak.”
She added: “You do not want to listen to people’s voices, and that is why you have denotified Jantar Mantar as a protest site.
“But who has the authority to denotify Jantar Mantar? Whom did you consult? How many stakeholders were consulted? How many ordinary citizens have called for Jantar Mantar to be removed as a designated protest site?
“This is not merely an attack on Jantar Mantar. We cannot read the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site in isolation. This is the denotification of democracy itself.”
Flash protests
Hundreds of AISF-AIYF activists on Tuesday protested on Parliament Street against the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site, while the Disha Students’ Organisation and the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India took out a flash rally from Barakhamba Road towards Jantar Mantar.
The Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) called a dharna outside Connaught Place police station, alleging that the police had assaulted women members during a flash protest against Gyanesh.
The organisation alleged that several activists had been detained.