The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Sunday flagged a number of issues with the "delayed" bail hearing for its leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were remanded to five days' judicial custody on October 14.
CJP legal head Ratna Singh alleged major delays by the Special Executive Magistrate (SEM), claiming that her team had reached the court at the scheduled time (12:00 PM), whereas the latter had been at the police station by 1:30 PM, but did not enter the courtroom until 5:00 PM.
"When he finally arrived, he refused to hear our case on its merits regarding whether Saurav and Ashutosh should be released from judicial custody. Instead, he made arbitrary remarks," she told reporters after the hearing.
The CJP's allegations also focused on a "threatening message" that the SEM told the court he had received—just five minutes after the bail hearing began—and questioned the rejection of four sureties with "vague reasons".
"They had decided beforehand to come into the courtroom and focus exclusively on this alleged threatening message, completely bypassing whether the formalities required for Saurav and Ashutosh's release were fulfilled," she added.
Singh has also claimed that the public prosecutor, who had not appeared at the police station for the last four days, was present on Sunday.
Das and Ranka were among the 14 detained after entering Jantar Mantar earlier this month to unfurl the national flag even after it was de-notified by the Centre as a protest site.
The CJP's allegations of "delay tactics" come after it said it consulted senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Saturday, and warned of legal action if Das and Ranka were not released by Sunday.
"If Ashu and Saurav are not released by tomorrow, we will pursue legal action against all those who deliberately ensured that they continue to be in illegal custody, especially when they have not committed nor charged with any offence," the pressure group had said.
