Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) chief Abhijeet Dipke's press conference on Thursday alongside All India Students' Association (AISA) head Neha Bora was anything but peaceful, with some people heard shouting at them even before it began.
"Band karo, dapha ho jao (Stop it, get lost)," the protesters could be heard saying at the start of the press conference, with Bora urging the angry people not to turn the press conference into another Delhi protest zone.
Dipke could also be seen pacifying the protesters at the conference. The identities of the protesters has not yet been revealed.
The presser also discussed the status of ongoing protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, as well as the alleged mistreatment of journalists covering the protests.
The AISA head also spoke of space being provided for protests at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, which the Centre recently de-notified as a protest site, offering three alternative venues for protests instead: Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was also present at the presser alongside Prakash Raj, defended calls for regime change, saying that citizens had a democratic right to seek regime change.
This comes before the CJP's proposed 'Lehra do Tiranga' march at Central Park in Connaught Place on Friday at 5 PM, for which the Delhi High Court cleared the way.
However, a senior police officer told Times of India that Connaught Place was not a designated protest site after Jantar Mantar was de-notified.
The proposed protest comes after the arrest of CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka after they reached Jantar Mantar. They were remanded to five days of judicial custody by a special executive magistrate.
The Delhi High Court's refusal to block the October 16 protests came in response to a plea from an Anil Kumar Gupta, a licensed street vendor at Palika Bazar, who had appealed that the Central Park protest be stopped, as it could disrupt business activities, affecting traders and other people living in the area, as per a Bar and Bench report.
However, the Delhi High Court had refused to restrict the protest, and even obtained assurances from the Delhi Police that appropriate steps would be taken in view of the possible issues raised by the petitioner.
The matter will next be heard on November 3.
