In this screengrab from a video posted on October 13, police detain CJP leader Saurav Das and other workers at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi. (@abhijeet_dipke/X via PTI Photo)
LIVE: CJP's Das, Ranka, Shinde under preventive arrest for trespassing into Jantar Mantar
Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and a few other CJP members were detained early Tuesday after they allegedly entered the area in defiance of prohibitory orders.
Delhi Police has filed an FIR against Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and its other members for allegedly trespassing into the Jantar Mantar area without authorisation, officials said.
FIR sections include breach of a peace bond the three leaders signed earlier. The action came hours after the activists entered the heavily barricaded protest site and raised slogans demanding Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.
Jantar Mantar was recently denotified as a designated protest site.
Das, Ranka and a few other CJP members were detained early Tuesday after they allegedly entered the area in defiance of prohibitory orders.
Also read: Rahul: Our mission is 'restoration of democracy in India'
According to the outfit, around 11 of its members were detained.
A police officer said the detained protesters were taken to Jaffarpur Kalan Police Station in Dwarka district. Security was stepped up in and around the police station after some CJP workers gathered there.
Dipke, the CJP founder, described the outfit's action as a reclaiming of Jantar Mantar and asserted that the denotification of the protest site would not deter it from continuing its agitation.
Dipke, Das and Ranka were detained on Saturday also following their arrival in Delhi amid a major security clampdown that thwarted the outfit's protest demanding Kumar's resignation.
They were released a day later on the condition that they would not breach peace for a year.
Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar issued a standing order on October 11 naming Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground as the new designated sites for protests and demonstrations.
The CJP said the denotification announcement came on October 12, the same day its representatives approached Parliament Street Police Station to seek a date and time for a peaceful demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
The outfit has criticised the move, arguing that shifting demonstrations away from the political centre of the national capital would weaken the visibility of public dissent.
The latest detentions come amid heightened security in New Delhi following protest calls by various organisations against Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
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Live Updates
- 14 Oct 2026 7:40 AM IST
CJP's Das, Ranka, Shinde under preventive arrest for trespassing into Jantar Mantar: Officials
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde have been put under preventive arrest for allegedly entering the Jantar Mantar area without authorisation, officials said on Wednesday.
The three were detained early Tuesday after they allegedly breached barricades and entered the protest site, which was recently denotified as a designated venue for demonstrations, and raised slogans demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.
- 14 Oct 2026 7:05 AM IST
Be prepared for 'crushing defeat' in 2029 polls: Amit Shah tells Rahul Gandhi, slams anti-SIR protests
In his first remarks on the ongoing protests against CEC Gyanesh Kumar and SIR, Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asked Rahul Gandhi and the opposition to be ready again for a "crushing defeat" in 2029 as people are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that the country can see through the Leader of Opposition's "plan" to get infiltrators registered as voters.
In a hard-hitting statement, Shah said that while the SIR started in 2024, the Congress has been losing continuously ever since Rahul Gandhi took over the party leadership.
Citing the opposition party's dismal performance in the recent bypolls and local body elections in several states, he said the kind of "negative politics" the Congress has been engaged in will not benefit it as it needs to connect with the public and asked the opposition party to introspect.
"Ever since you became the principal leader of the Congress, and later its president, and now the Leader of the Opposition, the Congress party has continuously lost elections," he said.
"You need to engage in introspection. You cannot win the trust of the country's people through fabricated media events and echoes of lies," he said, adding that the Congress is on a losing spree for decades now.
"I want to ask Shri Rahul Gandhi ji directly: Is this the result of the SIR? The SIR started only after 2024," Shah said.
Criticising Gandhi, the Home Minister said people of India know his plans of "getting infiltrators registered as voters".
"I want to tell Shri Rahul ji and his associates to prepare themselves once again for a crushing defeat in 2029. In the 2029 general elections, the NDA is going to win with a resounding majority, and the Congress is going to face defeat for the fourth consecutive time.
"The people of this country are with Narendra Modi ji, with the BJP, with the NDA. You cannot deny this truth," he told reporters in Delhi.
