Opposition unites to condemn arrest of CJP leaders

New Delhi: Opposition leaders on Wednesday condemned the remand of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in five days’ judicial custody for entering Jantar Mantar, with several leaders accusing the government of curtailing the right to protest and demanding their immediate release.

The arrests came after the Union Home Ministry’s decision to de-notify Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site, amid a series of demonstrations by the CJP and other organisations demanding Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said Das and Ranka, along with their associate Ajinkya Shinde, had entered Jantar Mantar in a symbolic protest against the de-notification order and were detained before being remanded in judicial custody on charges of criminal trespass and disobedience of orders.

Calling the action a punishment for protesting against the decision, Bhattacharya said the government is afraid of protests and disdainful of the Constitution.

“Jantar Mantar belongs to the people and the whole world knows it as Delhi’s most common protest site,” he said in a post on social media, claiming that the de-notification and the subsequent action against the activists were linked to the government’s apprehension about protests.

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The Hans India