Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, the co-conveners of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the further extension of their judicial custody, arguing that holding them any longer is unlawful. The two moved the court after a Special Executive Magistrate at Mandir Marg police station ordered on Monday, October 19, 2026, that they remain in custody for two more days. According to The Hindu, the pair asked for a night hearing, but the high court is closed this week for the Dussehra vacation.
Why it matters
The petition turns on how long a person can be held before trial and on what grounds the state may keep someone locked up. The CJP leaders argue that their detention breaches the procedure laid down in law and their right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Their case also puts a spotlight on the role of Special Executive Magistrates, whose powers have drawn scrutiny after they extended the custody of the two leaders. The Indian Express reports that questions are being raised about the scope of those powers.
The dispute follows the pair's arrest on October 13. They were taken into custody for allegedly climbing over a locked gate to enter Jantar Mantar, a site that had been removed from the list of places designated for protests. They were first placed under judicial custody for five days. The Hindu reports that Das and Ranka were among CJP workers who unfurled the national flag at Jantar Mantar and raised slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar before being detained and placed under preventive arrest that day.
What the petition argues
In their plea, the two leaders contend that the magistrate's order departs from the procedure the law requires. They say they have spent six days in custody even though they submitted the sureties demanded of them on several occasions.
They also dispute the claim that their continued detention is needed to protect public order. Any limit on a person's liberty, their petition states, must rest on a direct and immediate link to an actual disturbance of public order, not on the mere chance that one might occur. Assembling at a site that is no longer a designated protest venue, they argue, would at most amount to a question of whether rules were followed and would not on its own amount to a threat to public order.
The petition was announced publicly in a post that said the two had approached the high court and sought an urgent night hearing, adding that their freedom should not be cut short for political reasons. The post carried the handle @Cockroachisback.
A crowded legal calendar
The timing of the filing complicates the case. Because the high court is on vacation, the petition is expected to be taken up on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, according to The Hindu. Until then, the two remain in jail under the magistrate's order.
Coverage of the case has drawn attention to the magistrates who authorized the extensions. The Indian Express examined who Special Executive Magistrates are and why their authority is being questioned, in a report published as the custody of the CJP leaders was extended once more. Telegraph India reported that the two co-conveners were given two additional days of remand, and Bar and Bench reported that they will stay in jail after the Delhi court extended their judicial custody.
The case has also spilled into public commentary. The Times of India reported that Abhijeet Dipke told critics they should not feel weak and advised them to spend time with their families, in remarks that referred to them as "cockroaches."
For now, the legal question before the high court is narrow: whether the magistrate's decision to keep Das and Ranka in custody can stand. Their petition asks the court to set aside that order and to find that their detention has no valid basis. The answer will depend in part on how the court reads the connection between the alleged entry into a denotified protest site and the risk to public order that the state says justifies holding them.
The next step is Wednesday's expected hearing, when the high court is due to return from vacation and take up the petition.
