Ahead of a planned Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) flag-waving event, the New Delhi Municipal Council on Thursday issued a public notice stating that the central park would remain closed to the public on Friday and Saturday citing “administrative” reasons.
The flag is located at the corner of the park a few feet away from the Inner Circle road. “It would be difficult for us to prevent people from going near it. It is a law and order issue that police will have to deal with,” the official quoted above added.
“Our trade is being impacted due to these activities and we met Delhi Police officials in this regard.
“All five gates of the park would be shut,” said the official, adding that there is a very low (just 3-4ft) railing around cetain sections of the park and police would need to ensure that people don’t jump inside. On Wednesday, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke urged “patriots” to assemble at Central Park on Friday at 5pm with the national flag, alleging that the group’s co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka had been “jailed only for unfurling the Tricolour”. They were arrested a day later for “trespassing”. The closure of the park is a welcome step, but now the crowds may spill over on roads and police will have to take adequate steps to provide security,” he said.
Das and Ranka were detained on Tuesday just seconds after they scaled an iron gate and entered the now-denotified Jantar Mantar protest site.
