CJP vows to continue protests after leaders’ release

Cockroach Janta Party leaders said they would continue protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after three senior party figures were released from preventive detention in Delhi, where demonstrations on October 10 prompted major security and transport restrictions. The three leaders, Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained after arriving in Delhi by plane ahead of the planned protest. A court ordered their release on a condition that they not breach the peace for one year, according to the party’s legal head. Das and Ranka later told reporters they had not signed a police undertaking. Das also alleged they had been detained without formal notice, had their phones seized without receipts and were denied access to lawyers. Those claims were not independently established in the supplied accounts. CJP said late Sunday that its leaders would go to Parliament Street Police Station on Monday morning, October 12, to seek a date for a peaceful demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The party said it would announce another protest if police did not grant a date.