A court on Monday extended the judicial custody of CJP spokespersons Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka by two days over breaching Jantar Mantar, a de-notified protest site.
The court order had said that the CJP leaders had signed a surety bond to maintain peace, and that their Jantar Mantar trespassing breached that undertaking. As Das left the court after the hearing, he claimed that there was a lack of justice and questioned the grounds on which the court rejected their sureties over allegations that they breached security and entered the site during the protest. “We’re in an emergency. There is no justice. This is a police court and you see what is happening. Just look at the ground that they have taken,” Das yelled out of a police van. He gave his remarks in an interaction with Smita Sharma Journalist, a YouTube channel. Das and Ranka’s judicial custody was extended by a special executive magistrate (SEM) at the Mandir Marg police station.
While Shinde was released on a personal bond and a surety of ₹ 5,000, Das and Ranka were subsequently sent to five days of judicial custody.
The order, as seen by HT, says that the CJP leaders “deliberately breached” their October 11 bonds and that the duo’s conduct “is not above board; rather it shows no respect for law and their habitualness in calling protest at de-notified areas”. Citing the police, the court said the arrested CJP leaders used social media to make repeated calls for protests at ‘non-designated sites such as Jantar Mantar and Connaught Place’.
