CJP calls tricolor gathering at Connaught Place as Central Park is shut and leaders are held

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called supporters to Central Park in Connaught Place at 5 pm on October 16 to wave the national flag. By that day the park had been closed, and police had detained the party's founder, according to reports published between October 14 and 16.

The call

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke announced a gathering called Lehra Do Tiranga on October 14 in a video on X, according to an IANS report in Morung Express. He said it was a protest against the jailing of party co-conveners Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who he said were jailed for waving the flag. People who could not reach Delhi were asked to hold marches in their own localities.

The same IANS report says Das and Ranka were sent to five days of judicial custody that day in a trespassing case tied to Jantar Mantar, which Delhi Police has removed from its list of designated protest sites. It says the three CJP leaders held in the case, including Ajinkya Shinde, who was released on a personal bond, were booked for trespassing, violating a bond and obstructing public officials in the course of their duty. A report in Nagaland Post said hundreds were detained in Delhi on October 14, the fifth day of protests against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Closures and restrictions

The New Delhi Municipal Council closed Central Park on October 16 and 17, citing administrative reasons, according to a report by The Wire republished in The Kathmandu Post. The same report says the Delhi High Court on October 15 declined to stop the protest and told police to regulate it. A separate IANS report in Telangana Today says reports indicated police would allow only 11 people to unfurl the flag.

The Wire put the number of security personnel around Jantar Mantar and Connaught Place at about 32,000. Police have said, according to a report in Mathrubhumi, that about 150 demonstrators were detained, that several FIRs were registered for breaching prohibitory orders, and that Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita restricted gatherings in central Delhi.

What happened on October 16

At a press conference in Jhandewalan, Dipke said the party would remain peaceful and that police could pick him up that night or the next morning. He alleged that plainclothes personnel were watching his home and that Intelligence Bureau personnel were following the party's lawyer, according to the IANS report. The report carries no on-record police response to these allegations.

The Wire reports that police denied protesters entry to Central Park, that demonstrators marched around Connaught Place instead, and that Dipke was detained outside his temporary residence in Jhandewalan. It says the CJP lost contact with him and that he could not speak to lawyers. It also reports that Neha Bora, national president of the All India Students' Association, was detained at Mandi House, and that police used force against some women protesters. West Bengal's former chief minister Mamata Banerjee called the detention of leaders "nothing short of an undeclared Emergency," according to the same report.

Dipke was granted conditional bail on October 17; that is covered in a separate report.