CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das arrested for trespassing at Jantar Mantar

Cockroach Janta Party leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were arrested by the Delhi Police for trespassing on Jantar Mantar.

Ranka and Das were sent to judicial custody for five days by the special executive magistrate court on Wednesday, the political campaign said. Shinde was released on a personal bond.

Ranka, Das, Shinde and several members of the campaign had been detained on Tuesday after they “sneaked into” Jantar Mantar to protest the authorities’ decision to denotify the area as a designated protest site.

The leaders have also been accused of violating a bond and obstructing a public servant from discharging their duties, the campaign’s legal affairs head Ratna Singh said.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that “waving the tricolour at Jantar Mantar in a peaceful protest is not a crime” and jailing young persons for it is an “act of cowardice”.

Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India and “we will reclaim it”, he said on social media.

On Sunday, a day after Ranka, Das and Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke were detained from inside an aircraft after it landed in Delhi ahead of a protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a magistrate court had ordered their release on the condition that they do not breach peace...

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