Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) chief spokesperson Saurav Das and its national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka were detained by the Delhi Police on Tuesday morning after entering Jantar Mantar by jumping the locked gates, a day after the site lots its designated protest venue status.
Ranka shared a video on his X handle, showing him and Saurav Das, along with outfit's national organisation in-charge Ajinkya Shinde, climbing the locked gates of Jantar Mantar and entering the venue before police personnel present there intervened and took hold of them.
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Das and Ranka had come with at least 10 more people and some of them managed to enter Jantar Mantar carrying the national flag to protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. They all have been detained, a senior police officer said.
{{/usCountry}}Das and Ranka had come with at least 10 more people and some of them managed to enter Jantar Mantar carrying the national flag to protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. They all have been detained, a senior police officer said.
{{/usCountry}}The video showed Ranka and others shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and ‘Gyanesh Kumar isteefa do’ [Gyanesh Kumar resign] chants.
Saurav Das said on X later that they have been “taken away to Jaffarpur Police Station.”
‘We reclaimed it’
CJP founder took to X and said “Cockroaches with the Tiranga sneaked into Jantar Mantar early this morning before they were picked up by Delhi Police,"
“You cannot denotify the resistance,” Dipke said on his X post after the detention of Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde for entering Jantar Mantar.
Saurav Das shared a video on his Instagram handle shortly after detention and said, “We have breached Jantar Mantar”. Ashutosh Ranka said in the video that the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will happen from Jantar Mantar only, "no matter what".
In another post, Saurav Das said, “In less than 24 hours of Jantar Mantar being denotified as a designated protest site, we reclaimed it.”
"This is a message to the government - hands off people's Jantar Mantar! Gyanu's time is over".
Jantar Mantar loses protest site status
The attempt to enter Jantar Mantar in Lutyens' Delhi comes a day after it was de-notified as a designated protest venue. A Delhi Police circular on Monday listed three new sites — spread out across the city — for holding demonstrations, making Jantar Mantar, where CJP led a mega stir in June and July that led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, off limits.
According to the circular, the Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted a committee to examine alternative proper venues for citizen's right for organizing protest/demonstrations in place of the existing "designated site".
Based on the committee's recommendations, Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified, it stated, listing the three new venues - -Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground, and CBD Ground, in Shahdara.
Jantar Mantar has been the centre of youth-led protests since June this year, led by Abhijeet Dipke-founded Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which ultimately resulted in the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged exam irregularities.
Reacting to the denotification order, Abhijeet Dipke said the entire country will become Jantar Mantar now.
“They have removed Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. Yes, it’s no a longer protest site as anyway it was turned into a war zone by the coward dictator. Ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega! [entire country will become Jantar Mantar now],” he wrote on X.