Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde have been placed under preventive arrest for allegedly entering the Jantar Mantar area without authorisation and are likely to be produced before a magistrate, officials said on Wednesday.
The three were detained early Tuesday after allegedly breaching barricades and entering the protest site, which was recently denotified as a designated venue for demonstrations, and raising slogans demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.
Police have registered a case against them on charges including trespassing, violating prohibitory orders, breaching a peace bond and obstructing a public servant from discharging official duties, sources said.
The three are likely to be produced before the Special Court of the Executive Magistrate (SEM) in the morning, sources said.
Ranka and Das had signed a bond to maintain peace for a year after being detained on Saturday during an earlier protest in the national capital, officials said.
However, CJP legal team head Ratna Singh claimed that the three had been arrested and were being held at Parliament Street Police Station.
In a post on X, she alleged that they had been brought to the police station in a private van at 3 am and had not been allowed to meet their lawyers until late at night.
"FYI, 24 hours timeline will end soon," she said, adding that the three could be sent to judicial custody in Tihar Jail after being produced before the SEM. "Despite these illegal actions, their spirits are high," Singh added.
The arrests come amid heightened security in the national capital following a series of protests by the CJP and other organisations over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
On October 11, Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar issued an order designating Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground as venues for protests and demonstrations. Jantar Mantar was subsequently denotified as a designated protest site.
The CJP has criticised the move, arguing that shifting demonstrations away from the political centre of the national capital would weaken the visibility of public dissent.
(With inputs from PTI)
