Guwahati: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka and several party workers were detained in Guwahati on September 27 shortly after arriving for the party’s scheduled “Volunteer Meet-Up.”
Three participants from Nagaland, including a 72-year-old woman, had arrived to attend the meet-up and were detained by police.
Speaking to reporters before his detention, Ranka accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of trying to prevent people from questioning the condition of the state’s infrastructure.
“Why is Himanta Biswa Sarma afraid of people seeing the actual condition of schools in Assam? He knows the situation would become known across the country. He is also afraid of what is happening to people’s rights in Kaziranga, where land, forests, and water are being taken away and handed over to corporates,” Ranka said.
Earlier, police detained several other attendees as they arrived carrying a banner reading “Volunteer Meet-Up.” They were escorted into police vehicles before the programme could commence.
The other detainees were identified as Khargeswar Milli, Sheikh Sahiluddin Shah, Hitesh Barua, Mintu Das, and Tommy Barua.
“We just came for a protest, but they have detained us before we could even start,” one detainee told reporters.
Reacting to the detentions, Abhijeet Dipke posted on X: “Assam Police has detained AshutoshRanka and CJP team and taking them to an unknown location. Ashu and co were going to have a small volunteers meet up in Assam.”