NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Monday gave Delhi Police 24 hours to set a date for its proposed protest at Jantar Mantar against alleged electoral roll revision irregularities, offering the force the choice to decide when it could be held.However, just as the green light was sought, police announced the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site, throwing CJP’s plan into uncertainty and prompting it to slam the move.Hours before party co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka came to Parliament Street police station to submit a letter regarding its demand, barricades and security personnel had taken over adjacent roads. Even Firoz Shah Road, around 10 minutes away, had barricades and police personnel stationed along it.Closer to Parliament Street, access was restricted, with loudspeakers repeatedly warning: “Section 163 of BNSS is in place. Please abide by law and order. Stay away from barricades on the road.” Just outside the police station, security was even tighter, with announcements also spelling out restrictions for media personnel.Ranka said, “We have come to police with a letter giving them the option to suggest a date on which we can hold our protest. The DCP came into the room, but left when he saw us sitting there. So, we could not meet him. The additional DCP and SHO are not present. It appears the entire police station has been vacated since CJP members arrived. Anyway, we have submitted the letter.”In its communication, CJP claimed that over 55,000 police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed across Delhi over the past three days, disrupting normal life. It alleged arbitrary detentions, physical aggression and prolonged custody involving common people and journalists, besides flagging financial losses suffered by businesses forced to down shutters.The party blamed road closures, barricades and the refusal to allot Jantar Mantar as a protest site for growing public distress. It demanded a scaling down of security deployment, an end to alleged illegal detentions and harassment of independent journalists, and permission to protest at a designated site.
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Das said, “Protesting peacefully is our democratic right. What happened in the past day (was akin to govt) waging a war against its own citizens.” The party said that students, youth and other citizens cannot be prevented from exercising their constitutional right to assemble and protest peacefully.Soon after Jantar Mantar’s denotification was announced, Ranka posted on social media, “Why not declare Mt Everest as the designated protest site? Thirty minutes after we went to Delhi Police asking for a date when we can go to Jantar Mantar, it was denotified.”CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote on social media, “Today, Modi denotified Jantar Mantar… Tomorrow, he will denotify democracy itself… Anyway, Jantar Mantar was turned into a war zone… Ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega!”
