Bail Hearing of CJP Leaders Delayed Amid Allegations of Vague Surety Rejections

The bail hearing of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka was "delayed" on Sunday as the Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) did not arrive at the scheduled time, activist Ratna Singh said and alleged that four sureties had been rejected on "vague" grounds. on October 14 after they entered Jantar Mantar, as a designated protest site, by scaling its locked gates. The CJP leaders maintained that they had unfurled the national flag and raised slogans. In a post on X, Singh said she had been at the police station since 11 am, while the hearing was scheduled for noon. She said the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP/SEM) had not arrived at the Mandir Marg police station by 4.42 pm. "This is really concerning. They have rejected 4 sureties till now on vague reasons. They have made people who have FIRs against them for being part of protest as people having criminal antecedents (sic)," Singh alleged. There was no response from police on the allegations. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, in a post on X, accused the state of using delaying tactics to keep Das and Ranka in custody. "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 said. "They have no legal grounds to keep them behind bars, so they are resorting to delaying tactics to keep them there," he added.