“Suppose things go in your favour at 4 PM today. The issue ends,” the Delhi High Court had told Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka that day, and the Special Executive Magistrate later accepted their surety bonds. Saurav Das Ashutosh Ranka released: the order came after the police sought three more days of judicial custody.
New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka are to be released after a Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) in Delhi, on Wednesday, October 21, accepted the surety bonds they furnished. The release holds unless they are required in custody in any other case. The Magistrate had reserved the order on a Delhi Police application for a further three days of judicial custody over the alleged breach of their peace bonds at Jantar Mantar [State v. Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka].
The two had been produced before the Special Executive Magistrate at Mandir Marg police station, as the two-day extension of their custody ordered on October 19 came to an end. Who passed Wednesday’s order, the amount of the bonds and any conditions imposed were not available at the time of writing.
What the High Court told them first
Earlier that day, the Delhi High Court allowed the two leaders to withdraw their writ petition against the October 19 order. Justice Subramonium Prasad asked why they had not pursued the revision remedy under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and suggested they first see what happened before the Magistrate in the afternoon. “Suppose things go in your favour at 4 PM today. The issue ends,” he had said. The High Court recorded that it expressed no opinion on the merits.
Three more days, sought and reserved
When the two were produced, Delhi Police asked for a further extension of judicial custody, alleging that they had breached the peace bonds executed by them by going to Jantar Mantar after it was de-notified as a protest site. The request was for three more days. The Magistrate reserved orders and later, accepting the surety bonds, directed that the two be released unless wanted in another case.
ALSO READ: Executive Magistrate Extends CJP Leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka’s Judicial Custody By Two Days
A contest over sureties
Wednesday’s order follows a dispute over sureties. On October 19, Special Executive Magistrate Ritu Raj had extended their custody by two days, holding the sureties offered unfit and directing fresh sureties. The leaders had argued that sureties were rejected arbitrarily and that two additional sureties with executed bonds were never called.
How the matter began
Das and Ranka were first apprehended on October 10, ahead of the CJP’s protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and released the same day on peace bonds of Rs 50,000 each in preventive proceedings under Sections 126 and 170 BNSS. After the October 13 protest at Jantar Mantar, the police alleged that the bonds had been breached, and on October 14 Executive Magistrate Mahesh Kumar Meena sent them to five days of judicial custody. During those proceedings, the CJP alleged that the hearing on their release was being delayed, an allegation the police denied.
Separately, two FIRs against the two over the Jantar Mantar protest, under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita including disobedience of a promulgated order, house-trespass and obstruction of public servants, have been transferred to the Inter State Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch. Wednesday’s release relates only to the preventive proceedings. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was released on conditional bail by a Delhi court on October 17.
The police allegation that the peace bonds were breached, and the allegations in the two FIRs, are untested. The proceedings before the Magistrate are preventive and not a prosecution, and the presumption of innocence applies to both leaders.
Case: State v. Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka (preventive proceedings under the BNSS; title descriptive, case number not available)
Forum: Special Executive Magistrate, Mandir Marg police station, New Delhi
Date of Order: October 21, 2026
Appearances: Not reported
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