Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were released on Wednesday from the Tihar jail after completing seven days of judicial custody in connection with the Jantar Mantar trespassing case.
A Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) court in Delhi on Wednesday ordered their release after the Delhi Police sought a three-day extension of their jail custody just days after an SEM hearing extended their previous five-day judicial custody remand by two more days.
CJP head Abhijeet Dipke reacted to the news of their release with an X post featuring a clip from Shah Rukh Khan's 2007 film Chak De India, in which the latter gets emotional after the Indian women's hockey team wins the World Cup.
Their release after a week of judicial custody also saw Das and Ranka assure the SEM court that they would not commit any breach of peace or make any calls for protest at Jantar Mantar for as long as it remains de-notified in accordance with the law.
The two added that they had "full faith in the judiciary and all its instruments including the learned SEM Court," as per a Bar and Bench report.
They are next scheduled to appear with their sureties for a SEM court hearing on October 23, for which the Delhi Police has been ordered to file a verification report as well.
The duo were initially remanded by SEM Mahesh Kumar Meena to five days of judicial custody on October 14, after being detained for entering Jantar Mantar after it was de-notified in order to unfurl the national flag.
This move, in connection with the ongoing protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, was also deemed as a violation of the peace bonds they had signed earlier.
On October 19, that five-day custody was extended by two days after a SEM hearing that the CJP termed "absurd", due to the public prosecution making "mere assumptions", and no proper arguments in the case, and delays from the SEM. The pressure group had also claimed that the "threatening message" the SEM allegedly received was being used to shift the narrative against them.
However, Special Executive Magistrate Ritu Raj had observed in his October 19 extension order that Das and Ranka had deliberately breached their bonds and immediately committed a breach of peace, a LiveLaw report said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Justice Subramonium Prasad of the Delhi High Court had also said that the Court would not interfere with the CJP leaders' judicial custody.
Justice Prasad had also asked them to await the outcome of the hearing scheduled before the SEM, and approach the appellate court if their grievance continued.
This had led to Das and Ranka withdrawing their plea challenging the two-day remand extension.
