NEW DELHI: A special executive magistrate on Monday extended the judicial custody of Cockroach Janata Party leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das by two days.According to their lawyer, their bail surety was rejected due to a reported mismatch in documents. They will now be produced on Wednesday.“Today, when we reached the court, the five-day custody period had ended. On the last date of hearing, the court had stated that it did not find the sureties legitimate enough to be accepted. Today, we produced fresh sureties and brought them to court. When our matter was taken up, the State filed a fresh application, which was served on us at that point. In this application, they sought a further five to seven days of judicial custody,” CJP leaders’ advocate said.“The reasons they gave were absolutely shocking to us. They claimed there was an imminent threat to public order and public tranquillity and that, therefore, the accused needed to remain in judicial custody… It is very unfortunate, and everyone must remember that there is currently no FIR against my clients in connection with this issue. This concerns preventive custody. They have been detained out of fear that they might go and protest. There is no FIR, no pending case against them in this matter, and no investigation for which they need to be questioned. This is absolutely appalling and deeply disturbing. I cannot remember the last time people were kept in preventive custody under such circumstances. We will pursue the matter legally, but this has been hugely disappointing for all of us,” he added.CJP leaders Das and Ranka, along with 12 party members, allegedly trespassed into Jantar Mantar, which is no longer a designated protest venue, and obstructed police personnel on duty.The development comes amid allegations by the CJP that the bail proceedings in the case have been deliberately delayed to prevent the release of its two convenors, who were sent to five-day judicial custody on October 13 following a protest at Jantar Mantar.
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On Sunday, the special executive magistrate, hearing their bail matter, had claimed that unknown persons were threatening him, following which the police registered a non-cognisable report.In a post on X, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had alleged, “The state is deliberately prolonging Ashu and Saurav’s illegal arrest by using every dirty trick in the book to delay court proceedings and prevent their release.“They have no legal grounds to keep them behind bars, so they are resorting to delaying tactics to keep them there.”The CJP also alleged that bail sureties for the release of its leaders had been rejected on “vague” grounds.