Three Cockroach Janta Party leaders freed after bond to keep peace for a year

Three top leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Abhijeet Dipke, Saurabh Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were released from police custody in Delhi on Sunday. They were let go after a hearing in the court of an executive magistrate.

The leaders had been taken into preventive detention on Saturday as soon as their flight landed at Delhi airport. A CJP protest was scheduled at Jantar Mantar, and ahead of it Delhi Police boarded the aircraft and detained the three, citing law and order and restrictions on agitations. The CJP will hold a press conference at 2 pm today to clarify its next course of action.

Under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), a person held in preventive detention is released legally on the condition that they will not breach the peace for a maximum of one year. Under this provision, the three leaders signed personal bonds before the magistrate and gave a written assurance that they would not breach the peace for a year.

If they violate the condition, they must pay the specified sum or the bond can be forfeited. The magistrate can also send the person back to jail for the remainder of that one-year period.

The matter is linked to the demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The agitation by the Cockroach Janta Party and several student and youth organisations against alleged "vote chori" in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has now become more aggressive.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters were detained together in the capital. Despite the arrest of its top leaders, the CJP had categorically refused to back down.

Under police rules, no person can be held for more than 24 hours without questioning or a hearing, and must be produced before a court. In keeping with this rule, the leaders were produced before the executive magistrate at Delhi Cantt police station at 9 am on Sunday.

CJP legal head Ratna Singh had said the leaders had been proceeded against under Sections 126 and 170 of the BNSS. According to her, she herself was to be present at the police station along with other lawyers.