Cockroach Janta Party leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were released on Sunday after nearly 24 hours of preventive detention, following an order by a Delhi Executive Magistrate court.
The three were detained by Delhi Police on Saturday shortly after their flight from Mumbai landed in the capital. They had arrived to participate in a planned protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Police took them into custody from inside the aircraft under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. Section 126 allows an Executive Magistrate to require a person considered likely to breach the peace or disturb public tranquillity to execute a bond for keeping the peace for a period of up to one year. Section 170 permits arrest without warrant to prevent the commission of a cognizable offence.
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CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh confirmed the court’s release order after the leaders were produced before the Special Executive Magistrate at Delhi Cantonment police station. The order comes with the condition that they must not breach the peace for one year.
The detentions formed part of a wider police operation in which thousands of protesters were taken into preventive custody across Delhi ahead of the demonstration. Permission for the gathering had been denied and security arrangements tightened in the capital.
The leaders are now free after the magistrate’s order.