The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to restrain the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), led by its founder Abhijeet Dipke, from holding a protest at Central Park in Connaught Place on Friday, October 16. The court took on record the Delhi Police's assurance that it would take "all possible measures under the law" to regulate and control the gathering.
The New Delhi Municipal Corporation, however, said in the evening that Central Park will remain closed for the general public on October 16 and 17, "due to administrative reasons". It was unclear if that also means no entry for CJP protesters
This turn of events comes days after the police detained hundreds who intended to go to the Jantar Mantar road near Connaught Place for the CJP's protest call of October 10 over alleged electoral fraud. The Congress-led Opposition's INDIA bloc is also holding protests on the issue, and this week the two parallel protests against the BJP-led central government appear to be converging. The AAP, which has largely stayed away from the INDIA bloc, has announced it'll participate in the CJP's protest, where Dipke has asked participants to carry the national flag.
The High Court's bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma was on Thursday hearing a plea by a licensed street vendor, who claimed the protest would affect the rights of traders and sought a direction to the police to regulate it in line with the law laid down by the Supreme Court
His lawyer argued that traders and vendors would be "on the streets" if they lost another weekend to closures in central Delhi during the festive season. "In the heart of Connaught Place Central Park, a protest is called. It seems we are being targeted. This is not a site (for protest). They have already started shutting down. This is the Dussehra weekend. This protest has to be stopped," the lawyer argued. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma appeared for the authorities and told the court that steps had already been taken to regulate the protests.
In Mumbai, permission was meanwhile granted for a parallel protest at Azad Maidan.
At a press conference in Delhi on Thursday, Dipke said protesters were dragged off the streets of the national capital over the past fortnight. He said that Opposition leaders who joined them had also been detained, and linked the crackdown to Prime Minister Narendra Modi "protecting" Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Dipke also noted that CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka are in jail "for having raised the flag" at Jantar Mantar earlier this week; they are charged with trespass as the site was denotified as a protest venue after the CJP's original October 10 call.
"For the past 10-15 days, students' organisations and the youth of Delhi have been out on the streets, being dragged away. When the Opposition joined them, they were detained too, including the Leader of the Opposition [Rahul Gandhi] and former chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan. And all this for whom? For one man, Gyanesh Kumar," Dipke said.
AISA activist Neha Bora alleged that journalists covering the protests had been beaten, dragged and detained for hours despite carrying press cards. She also alleged that cameras had been snatched from them.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission, the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners on petitions filed by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders over decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Referring to the INDIA bloc's October 12 march from Barakhamba Road to the court premises, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said: "Nobody can browbeat the judiciary."
The top court also issued notice to Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and others on a separate plea against that march. It directed that CCTV footage from the court premises during the protest be preserved.
