New Delhi, Oct 20: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court seeking an urgent hearing against the extension of their judicial custody.
Das and Ranka sought a night hearing in the high court, which is shut this week due to Dussehra vacation.
The high court is likely to take up the petition for hearing on Wednesday.
A newly-appointed Special Executive Magistrate at Mandir Marg police station on Monday ordered their judicial remand for two more days after they were produced before him.
They were taken into custody on October 13 after they allegedly climbed over a locked gate to enter Jantar Mantar, which had earlier been denotified as a designated protest site, and were sent to five-day judicial custody.
“We have moved the Delhi High Court and requested an urgent night hearing. Saurav and Ashutosh should not spend a single minute behind bars. Their liberty must not be curtailed because of political games. Justice must not wait,” CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh said in a post on X.
The CJP has alleged that the bail proceedings in the case have been deliberately delayed to prevent the release of its two co-convenors.
In their petition, Das and Ranka assailed the special magistrate’s order remanding them in two days’ judicial custody in violation of the legal procedure and their ‘Right to Liberty’ under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Contending that the order is illegal, arbitrary and liable to be set aside, their petition asserted that Das and Ranka continue to remain in custody for six days despite submitting the required sureties multiple times.
“The mandatory procedure under Section 140 BNSS was not followed for rejecting the Surety showing complete misapplication of the law in the impugned order. That delay and obstruction in the acceptance and verification of sureties frustrates the very purpose of release,” the plea said.
“The Ld. SEM has arbitrarily exercised their powers to extend judicial custody of the petitioners under Section 135(3) BNSS. This is because the basis of judicial custody is ‘in default of execution of the bond’.
However, the basis is incorrect in view of the petitioner’s sureties produced on 19.10.2026 being in accordance with law,” it added.
The plea further contended that restricting petitioners’ liberty in the interest of public order requires a “proximate and real nexus with disturbance of public order” and not a remote possibility.
It also argued that the issue of protest at a denotified site is, at its highest, a question of regulation, not a threat to public order.
Along with other CJP workers, Das and Ranka displayed the national flag at the site and shouted slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar before being detained and placed under preventive arrest on October 13.
Das and Ranka were first sent to judicial custody for five days on October 14 by a special executive magistrate.
Their associate Ajinkya Shinde was bound down to maintain peace and good behaviour for six months and released on a personal bond and a surety of Rs 5,000.
According to Delhi Police, the protesters allegedly entered the denotified protest site by trespassing through private premises and obstructed police personnel from discharging their official duties. (PTI)
