CJP co-conveners Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have moved to the Delhi High Court to challenge the two extra days of judicial custody they were given.
Published: October 20, 2026, 6:02 PM IST
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Ashutosh Ranka (left) and Saurav Das (right) have moved Delhi HC against extension of judicial custodyImage Credit: @abhijeet_dipke/X
Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party, have gone to the Delhi High Court to challenge a Special Executive Magistrate’s Monday order that extended their custody by two daysTheir petition was filed in the afternoon by advocate Abhik Chimni.
The decision was shared by the outfit’s legal affairs head Ratna Singh on social media platform XShe wrote, “We have moved the Delhi High Court and requested an urgent night hearing.”
She further wrote, “Saurav and Ashutosh should not spend a single minute behind barsTheir liberty must not be curtailed because of political gamesJustice must not wait.”
CJP accuses authorities of deliberate delays in release of Das, Ranka
Just a day earlier, the CJP accused authorities of deliberately prolonging the ‘illegal arrest’ of party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka by delaying court proceedings and alleged that bail sureties had been rejected on ‘vague’ grounds, even as police registered a non-cognisable report over “threats” received by the magistrate hearing the matter.
The CJP leaders remained in judicial custody after they were arrested for entering Jantar Mantar, which was recently denotified as a designated protest site, by scaling its locked gatesThey were detained on October 13 and sent to five days of judicial custody on October 14.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said in a post on X, “The state is deliberately prolonging Ashu and Saurav’s illegal arrest by using every dirty trick in the book to delay court proceedings and prevent their release.” He added, “They have no legal grounds to keep them behind bars, so they are resorting to delaying tactics to keep them there.”
SEM court extends custody
The petition follows a Special Executive Magistrate’s order on Monday extending the judicial custody of Das and Ranka by two days, in connection with allegations that they breached security and entered Jantar Mantar during demonstrations against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
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Delhi Police asked for more time with the two, saying that letting them go could disturb “peace and tranquility.” Saurav Das, the CJP’s chief spokesperson, and Ashutosh Ranka, its national spokesperson, had been detained on October 13 for climbing over the locked gates of Jantar Mantar, a day after it stopped being a designated protest site.
Following this, SEM sent the duo to five days of judicial custody after the Delhi Police argued that “there was a presumption that the accused might carry out a crime” if released.
