YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was released from detention linked to a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi that the Cockroach Janta Party had been organising, while three others connected to the same event — party founder and convener Abhijeet Dipke, along with Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das — remained held on a preventive basis as Sunday morning, October 11, arrived.
The CJP scheduled a fresh gathering at Jantar Mantar for around 10 am on Sunday, with the party stating it would continue its protest until its demands received a response. Protesters have called for the removal of Gyanesh Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner, citing concerns over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Police took Rathee into custody at his Sector 56 home in Gurugram on the morning of Saturday, October 10, a day on which authorities had put additional security measures in place across Delhi ahead of the planned protest gathering. By late Saturday, he had been released, with police understood to have advised him against returning to the demonstrations at Jantar Mantar.
The three CJP leaders — who had travelled from Mumbai to attend the planned agitation in Delhi — remained in detention after Rathee was released. Of those held following the police action, the majority had been freed by Saturday night, though Dipke, Ranka, and Das were still being held.
On October 10, after their Air India flight from Mumbai landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Dipke, Ranka, and Das were taken into custody by Delhi Police while still aboard the aircraft. The delegation had been travelling to Delhi to take part in a demonstration at Jantar Mantar, organised under a plan put forward by the CJP. Police had withheld a permit for the gathering and deployed a substantial security presence to limit the size of the assembly.
Video circulating on social media showed law enforcement officers boarding the aircraft and placing the group of leaders under arrest. CJP members were heard chanting and declared their readiness to face detention. A group among them drew a direct parallel between the police response and authoritarian rule.
By Sunday morning, all three leaders had been placed in preventive custody and were awaiting presentation before an executive magistrate at the Delhi Cantonment police station, according to available reports.
The arrests of the CJP leaders and Rathee formed part of a broader police operation across Delhi in the lead-up to the planned demonstration. Figures from various sources placed the total number of detentions anywhere from roughly 3,000 to upwards of 7,000, with a number of opposition figures reported to have been among those held. Among those taken into custody, according to reports, were political figures including Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Manik Sarkar.
Road barricades were erected and entry points at metro stations were curtailed as Delhi Police moved to keep protesters away from Jantar Mantar. The restrictions limited the capacity to assemble a large crowd in the capital.
By Saturday night, the bulk of those detained had been released, while the three CJP leaders remained in custody. The CJP announced a follow-up gathering at Jantar Mantar, set for around 10 am on Sunday, October 11, even as detentions and security restrictions remained in place. The party stated that protests would continue each day until its list of demands received a response. Ajinkya Shinde, who leads the CJP, was reported to be organising a new round of mobilisation while Dipke, Ranka, and Das remained in custody, according to news reports.