DELHI PRESS
Two Protest Leaders Sent to Tihar — and a Bigger Fight Over Jantar Mantar
A five-day remand for two Cockroach Janta Party leaders has become the latest round in Delhi’s argument over protest itself — who may gather, where, and who gets to decide.
The Story — On Wednesday, a Delhi Special Executive Magistrate sent Cockroach Janta Party co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka to Tihar Jail for five days of judicial custody, a day after they and other CJP members entered Jantar Mantar — climbing a locked gate and crossing barricades, police say — days after the site was denotified as the capital’s designated protest venue.
A third leader, Ajinkya Shinde, detained with them, was released on a personal bond and bound down to keep the peace for six months. Police say the two jailed leaders had signed one-year peace bonds after a preventive detention on October 10, under BNSS sections 126 and 170, and now face charges including trespass, violating prohibitory orders and obstructing officials — which they deny.
SFI leader Aishe Ghosh addressed a press conference in Delhi on Wednesday; Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has criticised the jailing, the BJP has hit back. The Supreme Court has since issued notice on the denotification itself, saying it will examine whether Delhi Police “applied its mind” before removing the site — and the denotification is also under challenge in the Delhi High Court.
Left coverage leads with the custody and the party’s own charge against the government: CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke called five days in jail for waving the tricolour an “unofficial emergency”, and opposition voices frame the arrests — and the denotification behind them — as dissent being policed out of Delhi’s democratic space.
Wire coverage sticks to the sequence: alleged violation of prohibitory orders, arrest, production before a Special Executive Magistrate, five days’ custody. It records the denotification dispute and the Supreme Court’s involvement without characterising either camp.
Government-aligned coverage leads with the trespass: the protesters climbed into a prohibited area after the site’s denotification, and custody followed due process before a magistrate. The BJP’s fire is aimed at Congress for championing the arrested while demanding order elsewhere.
The issue — The fight is bigger than two arrests: it is over whether Delhi keeps a sanctioned protest space at all.
What to watch — The Supreme Court has issued notice and will examine whether Delhi Police “applied its mind” in denotifying Jantar Mantar — with a parallel challenge in the Delhi High Court, and CJP’s next protest called for Connaught Place on Friday.
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