A Delhi Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka from judicial custody, hours after the Delhi High Court refused to entertain their petition and advised them to wait for the lower court’s decision. The two activists were detained by the Delhi Police on October 13 for allegedly climbing over barricades to trespass into the restricted protest site at Jantar Mantar.
The court suggested that the petitioners should instead approach a revisional court or wait for the SEM, which was already scheduled to reconsider their sureties later in the afternoon. “You are a person who has actually broken a bond… Your remedy actually lies in revision,” Justice Prasad observed, noting that while the petition was maintainable, the High Court would not immediately entertain it when alternative legal routes were available. Following the court’s observations, advocate Abhik Chimni, representing the activists, agreed to withdraw the plea against their judicial custody temporarily. The lower court’s order for release marks the end of an eight-day detention for the CJP leaders. Police had claimed that one surety’s face did not match his Aadhaar card photograph, while another failed to provide basic personal details about the accused.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court bench headed by Justice Subramonium Prasad questioned the maintainability of the activists’ writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution. Das and Ranka were initially remanded to five days of judicial custody on October 14, which was subsequently extended by another two days on October 19 after the SEM rejected their initial sureties over verification discrepancies. In their high court petition, the activists had challenged the extension of their custody under Section 135(3) of the BNSS, arguing that the magistrate had mechanically relied on the police’s application without an independent judicial mind. Relying on the landmark 2018 Aldanish Rein v State of NCT of Delhi judgment, the duo argued that they should have been released on a personal bond while their sureties were undergoing verification.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ritu Raj, acting as the Special Executive Magistrate, issued the release order after accepting the sureties furnished by Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, according to legal news portal Bar and Bench.
