'Jailing youth...act of cowardice': Rahul Gandhi backs CJP leaders
What's the story
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has slammed the judicial custody of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka. The two were sent to Tihar Jail for five days after they allegedly trespassed into Jantar Mantar, a site recently denotified as a protest area. They climbed a locked gate and crossed barricades to enter the site. "Waving the Tricolor at Jantar Mantar in...peaceful protest is not a crime. Jailing youth for it is an act of cowardice," Gandhi reacted.
Protest solidarity
Jantar Mantar belongs to people of India: Gandhi
Gandhi stressed the need for unity among those protesting, saying "Students. Youth. Journalists. The INDIA bloc. Different banners, one cause."
He also said that Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India and vowed to reclaim it.
"All protests are one: citizens demanding their constitutional rights...Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India. We will reclaim it," he wrote on X.
Detentions and criticism
Debate on right to protest reignited
The detentions of CJP leaders have sparked a debate on the right to protest.
Police had filed cases against Das and Ranka for trespassing, violating prohibitory orders, breaching a peace bond, and obstructing a public servant from discharging official duties, charges they deny.
On Wednesday morning, a Special Executive Magistrate Court remanded Das and Ranka to five days in judicial custody, while Shinde was released on a personal bond.
Protest treatment
They were detained on Saturday too
Their arrests follow an earlier round of detentions over the weekend, when CJP leaders were taken into preventive custody from inside the plane ahead of planned demonstrations in the capital before being released.
Ratna Singh, their head lawyer, said they had been released on the condition that they made "no breach of peace for one year."