CJP’s Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka sent to five-day judicial custody

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Oct 14, 2026: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were remanded in judicial custody for five days on Wednesday for allegedly entering Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area without authorisation. Another party leader, Ajinkya Shinde, was released after signing a bond to maintain peace.

Das and Ranka will be lodged in Tihar Jail. The three were produced before the Special Executive Magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

They were detained early Tuesday after allegedly breaching barricades and entering the Jantar Mantar protest site, which was denotified as a designated venue for demonstrations on Monday. They reportedly raised slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Police subsequently placed them under preventive arrest over allegations including trespassing, violating prohibitory orders, breaching a peace bond and obstructing a public servant from discharging official duties.

Speaking to the media after his release, Shinde said the government would not succeed in intimidating the two leaders by sending them to jail.

“If the government thinks that sending our two leaders, Ashutosh and Saurav, to jail for five days will frighten them, it is absolutely mistaken,” he said, adding that the leaders had entered jail with their heads held high and would not be intimidated.

Shinde alleged that the leaders were detained for waving the national flag and raising the slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” at Jantar Mantar. He accused the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of acting dictatorially.

He also appealed to people across the country to unite against what he described as violations of citizens’ fundamental rights.

“Today is Ashutosh’s birthday, and on his birthday, he has been sent to jail for raising the slogan of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and waving the Tricolour,” Shinde said, urging people to come together to oppose the government’s actions.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke also criticised the decision to remand the two leaders in custody, alleging that they were being punished for unfurling the national flag at Jantar Mantar.

In a post on X, Dipke challenged Prime Minister Modi, saying the government should officially declare an Emergency if it was determined to suppress dissent, rather than resorting to what he called “cowardly tactics”.

On Sunday, Ranka, Das and Dipke had signed bonds undertaking to maintain peace for a year. They had been detained a day earlier after arriving in Delhi on a flight.

The latest development comes amid heightened security in the national capital following a series of protests by the CJP and other organisations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.