The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Sunday claimed that its co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka and 40 of its volunteers were detained by the police in Assam’s Guwahati without citing any reason
GUWAHATI — The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Sunday claimed that its co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka and 40 of its volunteers were detained by the police in Assam’s Guwahati without citing any reason.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said that if Ranka and the others were not released, he will come to Assam with more party members, and dared the chief minister to arrest them all.
Ranka, who arrived here a day ago, was scheduled to meet CJP volunteers at the residence of opposition Assam Jaitya Parishad (AJP) leader Kunki Chowdhury in Dispur area near the state secretariat.
Dipke claimed that the outfit's leaders were prevented from holding the meeting.
"The Assam Police has detained Ashutosh Ranka and a CJP team, and is taking them to an unknown location. Ashu and co were going to have a small volunteers meet up in Assam," he said in a social media post.
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In another post, Dipke said, “Ashu was picked up by the Assam Police from a private residence. They have still not been told under what charges or on what grounds he has been detained. If Ashu is not released, I will go to Assam along with other CJP members. (CM) Himanta (Biswa Sarma) can arrest us all.”
A video uploaded on Ranka's X account showed him sitting in a moving vehicle with the police, and purportedly heard saying that Sarma has detained him and the CJP volunteers as he was "afraid" of the people of Assam, since the outfit wants to "expose" the reality of schools here.
Talking to reporters while being whisked away by police personnel, Ranka asserted that the action showed the CM was "afraid of being exposed".
"He (Sarma) is scared that if we show the schools here, the country will know the reality. He is afraid that people will know how their rights were being snatched in Kaziranga for the benefit of corporates. Also, man-made floods have taken scores of lives.
“But, we are not afraid of him. We know that he won the assembly election by redrawing boundaries of constituencies," Ranka alleged.
Addressing a press conference later, NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande claimed that Ranka and 41 others have been “illegally and unconstitutionally detained from a private residence when a meet up was scheduled to take place with CJP volunteers”.
He asserted that no legal notice was served on them nor were they told of the sections imposed.
“It is nothing short of jungle raj under CM Sarma, who is afraid of any and all kind of dissent,” Gawande said.
He said the CJP wanted to highlight the “pathetic condition of schools, eviction of people in Kaziranga, arrest of activists, illegal drawing of election boundaries” and other such issues.
“This is a pattern in Assam, happening here for too long. Pranab Doley gets picked up when he gets bail, and the NSA is invoked against him,” Gawande said, referring to the activist, who had been leading protests in Kaziranga demanding safeguarding of indigenous people’s rights.
This is another attempt to intimidate civil society and activists in Assam to create a police state, he asserted.
“We demand the immediate release of Ranka and all others, failing which legal action will be taken against the Assam Police and no one less than the chief minister, himself, who has authorised this illegal action,” Gawande added.