‘Protests to continue till Gyanesh Kumar resigns’: CJP leaders after release from custody

Leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said that India has seen a brazen display of dictatorship in the past 72 hours when protesters gathered for a march in Delhi to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The leaders were addressing the media on Sunday, October 11, soon after they were released from police custody a day after they were detained to stop them from attending the protest march.

CJP conveners Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were taken into custody from inside their flight as soon as they landed at the Delhi airport on October 10, and were released by the Special Executive Magistrate Court at the Delhi Cantt Police Station the next day, on the condition of “maintaining peace and good behaviour” for a year. 

Ashutosh and Saurav addressed the media, along with the CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh. Abhijeet returned to his village in Maharashtra to attend the final rites of his grandmother who passed away on October 10, soon after he was taken into custody.

Saurav said that the three of them were “abducted” by the Delhi police from the flight immediately after it landed. “We were not shown any paperwork or grounds for arrest. No legal formalities were followed. Our phones were seized. When we asked them to follow the legal process and give us a seizure memo and hash value [which helps in tracking if the contents of the device are altered], they refused,” he said. He expressed fear that the police may have cloned their phones or planted false evidence.

He said that the police took the three of them in different private vehicles to different locations, and refused to let them talk to their lawyers.

Calling the police action and other restrictions an Emergency-like situation, Saurav questioned the inaction over allegations of custodial violence, alleged violence by right-wing groups on protesters, and the manhandling and detention of journalists by the police. 

“When else will the suo motu powers of the courts and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) apply if not in such an emergency situation?” he asked. 

He called on citizens from across the country to hold peaceful protests in their states. 

Ashutosh called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “the biggest coward of India.” 

“In the past 72 hours, this country has seen a brazen display of dictatorship. Thousands of people were detained from across the country. Peaceful protesters who wanted to protest at a designated protest site were picked up and manhandled. Even during the 1975 Emergency, trains didn’t have to be cancelled. But this dictator is so scared that yesterday many trains were cancelled. Lakhs of Indians were inconvenienced,” he said. 

CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh said that four police vehicles surrounded the vehicle she was in and that the police kept her confined on the street for nine hours, telling her she could either go with them to a detention centre or remain under detention at her house. 

“I kept asking for the reason for detention and they said they got orders from the top. Who will take accountability for these orders?” she asked.

The organisation said that protests will continue until Gyanesh Kumar resigns as the CEC. 

“The CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated. October 10 will go down as the beginning of the end of this dictatorship,” Abhijeet said in an X post.

This report was first published by The News Minute. Become a joint subscriber here.