Delhi Police Send Cockroach Janta Party Leaders to Five Days Judicial Custody After Jantar Mantar Attempt

A Special Executive Magistrate in Delhi sent Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka to five days of judicial custody on Wednesday. The order followed their detention the previous day after the group, along with other volunteers, tried to enter the de-notified Jantar Mantar protest site. A third leader, Ajinkya Shinde, was released on a personal bond. Police cited violation of standing restrictions at the historic central Delhi location.

Jantar Mantar has served as a designated protest site for decades, but access has been limited during periods of political tension. The Cockroach Janta Party has organised several recent actions opposing the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi later backed the group publicly, stating that waving the national flag at the site does not constitute a crime. The remand keeps two of the party's most visible spokespeople out of public activity for the next five days while other members remain free.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta questioned the intensity of the current protests in remarks distributed by ANI. She noted that Special Intensive Revisions have been carried out under governments of different parties over many years and asked why objections have become so sharp now. The Supreme Court is set to hear related petitions on electoral rolls and on protest restrictions in the coming days. One application asks the court to direct the Election Commission to publish the list of electors who received notices during the Delhi revision together with the specific reasons for each notice. Another hearing concerns an elephant corridor and citizenship matters under Section 6A of the Citizenship Act.

The custody decision adds a concrete enforcement step to the wider dispute over the scope of assembly rights at a central Delhi site and over the administration of the voter-list exercise. Further court hearings and any additional police actions will show whether the five-day remand remains an isolated response or part of a broader pattern of restrictions. For the moment the verified facts are the detention, the five-day judicial custody for Das and Ranka, the release of Shinde, and the continuing legal challenges to the revision process.