CJP Leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka Released Following Order From Executive Magistrate

New Delhi: Three leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), founder Abhijeet Dipke and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were released following the order of the Executive Magistrate. The three leaders were produced before Executive Magistrate at Delhi Cantonment on Sunday, a day after being detained during a sweeping security operation in the capital ahead of the Jantar Mantar protests.

The leaders were detained inside an aircraft after it landed in Delhi on Saturday, a day on which police also took hundreds of protesters and several opposition leaders into custody amid restrictions across the city.

The mass detentions and heavy security deployment prompted allegations from opposition that an undeclared Emergency was in force in the capital. The authorities had earlier justified the measures as necessary to maintain law and order after permission for the demonstration was refused.

Senior CPI(M) leaders including General Secretary M A Baby, Pinarayi Vijayan, K K Shailaja, Brinda Karatt were among those arrested by Delhi police. Four former CMs including Pinarayi and Arvind Kejriwal were arrested by the Delhi police for protesting against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Delhi now appears set for another confrontation at Jantar Mantar. The CJP and left youth and student organisations said they will continue their agitation until CEC resigns, accusing him of presiding over irregularities in the electoral rolls. The opposition alleges that as many as 13 crore votes were deleted or manipulated. The Election Commission has maintained that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is lawful and was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Bihar case.

The party’s campaign has already led to a series of detentions, including those of Ranka and volunteers in Guwahati last month, and of journalists’ supporters outside the Parliament Street police station earlier this month.