Guwahati: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convener Ashutosh Ranka and several party supporters were allegedly detained by Assam Police ahead of a planned meeting with volunteers in Guwahati, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke claimed on Sunday.

Ranka had arrived in Guwahati a day earlier and was scheduled to meet CJP supporters during the day. According to Dipke, the group was stopped from holding what he described as a small volunteers’ meet-up.

“Assam Police has detained Ashutosh Ranka and a CJP team, and is taking them to an unknown location,” Dipke said in a statement.

A video shared on Ranka’s X account showed him seated inside a moving vehicle alongside police personnel. In the video, Ranka alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had ordered his detention along with CJP volunteers.

Ranka claimed the group wanted to visit schools in Assam and highlight what it described as the condition of education in the state.

Speaking to reporters while being taken away by police, Ranka alleged that the action was linked to concerns over the CJP’s activities in Assam.

“He is scared that if we show the schools here, the country will know the reality,” Ranka said, referring to Chief Minister Sarma.

He also alleged that people’s rights were being “snatched” in Kaziranga for the benefit of corporates and claimed that the CJP was not intimidated by the action against its members.

Ranka further alleged that Sarma had won the Assembly election by “redrawing boundaries of constituencies”. The claim was made while he was being taken away by police.

The party also raised questions over the circumstances surrounding the alleged detention.

According to a statement attributed to CJP, Assam Police told the party’s lawyer that they had received instructions from “the top” to detain Ranka and other CJP members.

The party claimed there had been no breach of peace that would have warranted police intervention and questioned whether the detentions were carried out on the basis of lawful orders.

CJP also questioned why lawyers were allegedly being denied entry to the premises where its members were being held and why police had allegedly seized their mobile phones.

The party called on the Assam government to clarify who ordered the detentions, the legal basis for the action and the restrictions placed on those detained.

With agency inputs