Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leader Ashutosh Ranka on Sunday evening said the “illegal detention” of him and other volunteers by the Assam Police has “finally ended”. He made the remarks in a post on X after being released along with the other detainees.
“The illegal detention by Assam Police has finally ended. We have asked Police to go and drop us from where we were picked up illegally in the first place,” Ranka said.
Reacting to Ranka's post CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote on X: "Abey yaar… I was actually looking forward to joining your strike at the police station tomorrow."
Dipke had earlier condemned the detention of CJP activisit, writing: If Ashu is not released, I will go to Assam along with other CJP members. Himanta can arrest us all."
Meanwhile, following his release Ranka added that he will share further details on the detention at the Chowdhury Tilla, situated opposite the state secretariat in Dispur area, from where they were picked up.
Ranka, along with over 40 CJP volunteers, were picked up by the police from opposition Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) leader Kunki Chowdhury’s residence at the Chowdhury Tilla earlier in the day, ahead of a meeting.
A video uploaded on Ranka's X account showed him sitting in a moving vehicle with the police, and purportedly heard saying that Sarma has detained him and the CJP volunteers as he was "afraid" of the people of Assam, since the outfit wants to "expose" the reality of schools here.
Talking to reporters while being whisked away by police personnel, Ranka asserted that the action showed the CM was "afraid of being exposed".
"He (Sarma) is scared that if we show the schools here, the country will know the reality. He is afraid that people will know how their rights were being snatched in Kaziranga for the benefit of corporates. Also, man-made floods have taken scores of lives," Ranka said
"But, we are not afraid of him. We know that he won the assembly election by redrawing boundaries of constituencies," he added.
Opposition parties in Assam on Sunday criticised the BJP-led state government over the detention CJP activists in Guwahati, claiming that the police action was aimed at stifling the voice of the youth. The opposition parties demanded the immediate release of those allegedly detained, describing the police action as illegal and unacceptable.
