CJP leaders scale gate at Jantar Mantar, detained by police
The entrance to Jantar Mantar became the first point of confrontation on Tuesday morning. Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde, leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), climbed over a gate and entered the protest site with party volunteers. They carried the national flag and raised slogans before Delhi Police personnel moved in and detained them. The brief entry was an attempt to reclaim a site that police had recently removed from the list of designated protest venues.
The three leaders had returned to the site after the authorities withdrew its designation as an authorised venue for demonstrations. Police had instead designated Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in east Delhi for future protests. For the CJP, however, the dispute was no longer simply about where a demonstration could be held. The party’s leaders were attempting to establish a physical presence at Jantar Mantar despite the restrictions.
The entry did not last long. Police detained the leaders and other volunteers shortly after they crossed the gate. Saurav Das subsequently declared on social media that Jantar Mantar had been reclaimed. The police action brought the immediate demonstration to an end, but the restrictions on the site continued to shape the day’s protests elsewhere in the Capital.
“You cannot denotify resistance,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke asserted, tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the outfit described its action as reclaiming Jantar Mantar and their right to protest. “Fortress Jantar Mantar has been reclaimed,” said a CJP statement, noting that its members had entered the heavily barricaded site and “hoisted the Tricolour” there.
According to the CJP, around 11 of its members, including Ranka, Das and Ajinkya Shinde, were detained on Tuesday. A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said Das, Ranka and some other protesters were taken to Jaffarpur Kalan Police Station in Dwarka district after being detained.
He also shared a video showing CJP members running towards the heavily barricaded protest site, scaling a gate and raising slogans while holding a tricolour, before being held by police personnel. They shouted slogans like “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and demanded CEC Kumar’s resignation. Later, in a post, he said the CJP leaders remained in detention and claimed their lawyers were not being allowed to meet them.
On Tuesday, the police response extended beyond the immediate protest site. The previous days’ restrictions had affected movement through central Delhi, while the authorities continued to monitor locations where demonstrators might assemble. The dispute over Jantar Mantar had therefore acquired a wider geographical footprint: activists were attempting to gather, police were intervening to prevent assemblies, and demonstrators were looking for alternative places to make their presence felt.
Later, a group of protesters associated with student organisation DISHA and the Revolutionary Workers Party emerged from Janpath Metro station and marched towards Connaught Place, protesting the de-notification of Jantar Mantar as a protest venue. The demonstrators were detained by Delhi Police. Their march formed part of the wider mobilisation by student groups and activists against the restrictions on demonstrations and the police action against protesters.
The day’s events also followed a broader clampdown on demonstrations in the capital. Earlier in the week, police had deployed personnel and barricades at multiple locations to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar. Small groups had attempted to assemble at different points, including near Connaught Place and Parliament Street, where police detained demonstrators.
By Tuesday, the protests had become a contest over both the demand being raised and the space in which it could be raised. The CJP’s attempt to enter Jantar Mantar ended in detention. Accounts from earlier detainees brought scrutiny to the treatment of protesters after arrest. Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc’s leaders were turning to meetings and a joint public statement to decide how to continue their campaign.
The result was a day of parallel developments rather than a single continuous march: an attempted return to Jantar Mantar, continuing questions about police detentions, and an opposition gathering intended to coordinate the next phase of its political response.
Case registered over trespassing
Delhi Police have registered a case of trespassing after members of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) allegedly breached security restrictions to enter Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, police sources said. The sections invoked and the names of those booked were not immediately available.
Reports said CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers detained after they climbed over a gate and barricades to reach the site. A video posted by the group showed volunteers waving the national flag and raising slogans before police arrived and took them away. Police did not immediately comment on the detentions.
The entry came a day after Delhi Police announced that Jantar Mantar was no longer an official protest site and that three new venues had been identified for demonstrations.
