Delhi Magistrate Orders Release of Three CJP Leaders

A Delhi executive magistrate ordered the release of Cockroach Janta Party leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka on October 11, ending their preventive detention a day after police took them into custody at the airport. The three were detained shortly after their flight landed in Delhi on October 10. They were travelling to join a planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar, where the party intended to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh said the magistrate’s release order required the leaders to maintain peace and not breach it for one year. The written order was not reproduced in the available accounts, so the precise terms of any bond or other conditions were not detailed. Delhi Police had placed the leaders under preventive arrest and produced them before the executive magistrate. Reports said police invoked Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, provisions concerning security for keeping the peace and preventive arrest. Their use does not itself establish that the three committed an offence.