Both first information reports (FIRs) registered against the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over alleged trespassing at Jantar Mantar and causing hurt to security personnel during a protest at the de-notified site have been transferred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch, officials said on Tuesday.
They were detained within minutes. The duo was remanded to five days of judicial custody by a special executive magistrate. Meanwhile, CJP called the arrests illegal, alleging that their sureties had been rejected without justification.
The case invokes Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 223 (disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant), 332 (house trespass to commit an offence) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy). On October 13, CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, along with 11 others, allegedly jumped the gates to enter Jantar Mantar and unfurled the national flag. Das and Ranka were arrested in connection with a bond they had signed on October 11, which required them to maintain peace for a year, police said While the others were released within 24 hours. The second FIR, registered at Parliament Street police station on October 13, concerns the same incident and includes allegations that protesters manhandled police personnel while being removed from the site.
The party said it would challenge the magistrate’s custody order in the Delhi High Court. On Monday, police transferred the FIR registered at Connaught Place police station to the Crime Branch’s interstate cell. On Monday, another magistrate extended their custody by two days, citing apprehensions that they could stage protests at de-notified sites again.
