Delhi Security Wall Foils CJP’s Protest Plans

7,000 protesters detained, six police personnel injured

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protest, which drew keen interest across the country, failed to take off on Saturday amid an elaborate security umbrella across the national Capital.

The police detained the key leaders of CJP, AAP and TMC even before they could reach the designated site, Jantar Mantar. Police also picked up many others before they made it anywhere near the venue and whisked them away to makeshift detention centres and some stadiums.

By late afternoon, the picture was clear that the protest had fizzled out. Six Delhi Police personnel, including a female member of the Pink Force, sustained injuries during the detention of more than 7,000 protesters in different parts of New Delhi district. Police are likely to file multiple FIRs in connection with the alleged assault on police personnel during the protest, a senior officer said.

The tone of the preventive action by the police was set in motion right away in the morning when CJP leader Dipke along with Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by a women’s cop team after high drama from the plane after high drama when it landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Almost an hour before the CJP leadership arrived at Delhi airport, the outfit’s supporter and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained by Gurugram Police from his residence in Sector 56. According to the outfit, Rathee, who lives abroad, had travelled to participate in the demonstration.

Several opposition leaders, including former chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M) and Manik Sarkar (CPI-M), were detained from multiple locations across the capital as they tried to join the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), throwing the protest into disarray and dampening the expected turnout.

Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site, wore a deserted look throughout the day, with the deployment of over 40,000 security personnel and waves of barricades in Lutyens’ Delhi to keep the protesters away from the area.

At Jantar Mantar, security personnel outnumbered protesters, detained about 500 people as they attempted to reach Jantar Mantar despite authorities denying permission to protest there. Several protesters were chased and detained as they tried to regroup at different locations and evade the security cordon. 

From Connaught Place and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib to Dilli Haat, Gole Market, INA Market and Minto Bridge, the protesters moved between locations, searching for places to assemble and trying to find others who had set out for Jantar Mantar. At several points, slogans rang out before police personnel moved in, chasing protesters and detaining them. Unlike the July protests, however, police did not use force, and no violence was reported.

As the police chased, the protesters scrambled to evade detention, using public washrooms, taking shelter in a gurudwara, and slipping in and out of its gates to lie low. One of the most unusual scenes unfolded at an NDMC washroom in Connaught Place, where more than 20 young protesters had hidden overnight, hoping to sneak through the extensive security arrangements ahead of the march to Jantar Mantar.

At Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, young protesters who had taken shelter overnight repeatedly emerged from the premises to join demonstrations before retreating inside as police personnel pursued them. The cycle continued as the two sides moved back and forth around the gurudwara, with protesters attempting to evade detention. Slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad” and “Jai Bhim” rang out in the lane outside the gurdwara as a large group of protesters poured onto the street. Within minutes, police detained several of them.

The protest was scheduled to begin at 10.30 am. Still, the police and paramilitary forces deterred the participants from reaching the Jantar Mantar site, which has been turned into a fortress, by detaining several and sending back many more. As protesters, many of them women, attempted to regroup at different locations, police chased them down and detained them in buses.

High drama unfolded at Delhi’s IGI Airport as minutes after an Air India flight carrying Abhijeet Dipke and his team, including Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, landed, Delhi Police personnel entered the aircraft and moved in on the group. Dipke, who said he was prepared to be arrested before he arrived, stood his ground as police approached him. “I was prepared for arrest. Main kisi se darta nahin hoon (I’m not afraid of anybody),” he said. In a video clip shot on the plane, police were seen entering the aircraft Dipke was travelling in, creating chaos on board. The flight had landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport around 11 am on Saturday.

Kejriwal was detained by the Delhi Police outside his residence while he was marching towards Jantar Mantar to participate in the protest. Mamata Banerjee, along with TMC joint secretaries Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal and former MP Saket Gokhale, held a dharna at a bus stop on South Avenue.

Vijayan, CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby, senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas and Former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar were among the Left leaders detained as they headed to join the protest. CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, AISA president Neha, along with activists Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, were detained from Dilli Haat near INA market.

Some lawyers trying to march towards Jantar Mantar were also detained. However, the Congress stayed away from the CJP’s planned demonstration. Rahul travelled to Chennai to attend an event involving his ally and Tamil Nadu chief minister Vijay.

Around 1 pm, scores of protesters hurled stones at security personnel near the Akashwani Bhawan on Imtiaz Ali Marg after jumping barricades, injuring two police personnel. The protesters were quickly detained by security personnel. 

In the evening, a similar incident happened near Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place, where some protesters threw stones at security personnel. A total of seven personnel sustained injuries during the detention of protesters. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Anant Mittal also sustained injuries to his hand during the detention of Left leaders, including AISA’s Neha.

In a pre-recorded video message released soon after his detention, CJP leader Dipke said the organisation’s in-charge, Ajinkya Shinde, would lead its protest at Jantar Mantar. The CJP asserted that the protest would continue nationwide, with or without its leaders.

Several journalists claimed that they were detained. Reporters alleged that they were detained despite displaying their press identity cards, and that their official phones were seized by police personnel before they were taken to detention buses along with other protesters. Visuals circulating showed journalists displaying their press identity cards from inside the buses.

The partial lockdown-like situation was marked by the closure of 45 metro stations, traffic diversions and heavy barricading along 30 road stretches in the areas around Jantar Mantar. Delhi’s borders were also tightly secured, with heavy police deployment. Police personnel also used steel spikes on some roads to prevent forced entry without vehicle inspection.