New Delhi: The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) leadership trio of Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, was released from detention Sunday morning, the group founder’s lawyer said in a post on X. They were produced before a special executive magistrate in Delhi Cantt Sunday morning, and their release is conditional. Neither of the three, under the executive magistrate’s conditions, can indulge in any activity that breaches peace and tranquility for the next one year.
Delhi Police had taken Dipke and CJP spokespersons Ranka and Das into custody Saturday just as they landed in Delhi from Mumbai to take part in their planned ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’ agitation. While waves of supporters turned out across the national capital Saturday in response to their call, widespread restrictions and detentions by the authorities didn’t let the agitators mobilise like they did for the CJP’s July protest against grievances related to public exams in India.
The trio was detained under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). In their applications for detention before the special executive magistrate, Delhi Police cited sections 126 and 170 of the code.
Section 170 empowers the police to arrest individuals without an arrest warrant or a magistrate’s order if they have knowledge of a design to commit a cognisable offence and the offence cannot be prevented by any other means.
Under Section 126 of the BNSS, meanwhile, a special executive magistrate can require a bond from individuals in detention to ensure peace in situations where a breach of the peace or a public disturbance is suspected.
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The development comes hours after the Delhi Police released thousands of protestors detained from the streets in the national capital during a protest on Saturday. This included former West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior leaders of their parties. Several left leaders and student union leaders, such as Neha Bora, were also detained during the afternoon protest and later released.
The CJP leadership, taken over by Ajinkya Shinde in the absence of Dipke and others, had issued a call for a protest on Sunday as well, saying their protest was far from over.
The development before the executive magistrate comes hours before the Supreme Court of India holds a special sitting on the Delhi protests. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and advocate Menaka Guruswamy had moved the top court, challenging the detention of opposition leaders.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan
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