‘Illegal detention’ by Assam Police finally over: CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka on release

GUWAHATI

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leader Ashutosh Ranka said on Sunday (September 27, 2026) evening that the “illegal detention” of him and other volunteers by the Assam police was “finally over”.

He made the remarks in a post on X after he was released along with other detainees.

“The illegal detention by the Assam police has finally come to an end. We have requested the police to go and drop us from the place where we were illegally picked up,” Mr Ranka said. The CJP leader added that he would share more details about the detention at Chowdhury Tilla, located opposite the state secretariat in Dispur area, from where they were picked up.

Assam Police on Sunday (September 27, 2026) arrested Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-organizer and chief spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka and several others from a private residence in Guwahati.

According to NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande, the others included 35 local volunteers and associates of Mr Ranka, Ankit Bharadwaj and Prem Aakash.

“Six of those arrested along with Ashutosh Ranka are women. They were taken to the (Dispur) police station from a private residence where a meeting of CJP volunteers was scheduled,” Mr Gawande told reporters.

The CJP leaders and volunteers were not served any legal notice and were also not told under which sections of the Act they were detained, he said.

Whenever Himanta gets scared, he calls the police. pic.twitter.com/eYYOV1lG0N

— Ashutosh Ranka (@AshutoshRanka) September 27, 2026

“This is nothing less than a jungle raj under Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who is afraid of any dissent,” Mr Gawande said.

The 35 members of the CJP who are currently in police custody have started an indefinite hunger strike to protest their detention. They include Mr Ranka, Head East and North East Mr Bhardwaj, Joint Secretary Premakash Golu and Coordinator Assam Sahil.

The hunger strike will continue until all 35 members are released from custody, the CJP said in a statement.

All the CJP wanted to talk about was to rectify the sorry state of schools in Assam that do not have fans, classrooms and teachers, he said. “We wanted to talk about the way people were evicted from Kaziranga, deprived of land and arrested activists. We wanted to talk about the illegal redrawing of constituency (constituency) boundaries in Assam,” he said.

The CJP alleged that there was a pattern in Assam which had been “happening for too long”.

“You saw what happened to land rights activist Pranab Doley, who was arrested and then detained under the National Security Act. You saw the government’s intimidation of civil society activists in Assam,” Mr Gawande said.

Also Read: Photo of woman allegedly morphed with Modi’s likeness at CJP Jantar Mantar protest, FIR registered

Earlier that day, Mr. Ranka asked why the chairman was afraid of exposure.

“The Chief Minister is afraid that if we show the schools here, the country will know the reality. He is afraid that people will know how their rights were robbed in Kaziranga in favor of corporations. But we are not afraid of him. We know that he won the assembly elections by redrawing the constituency boundaries,” Mr Ranka said as the police chased him away.

The chief minister dodged questions on why the CJP members were detained, but said he welcomed any suggestions to improve the state’s health and education system.

“I will give top priority to such proposals, whether from BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), or Congress, or CPI(M) (Communist Party of India-Marxist) or CJP,” he said.

Police did not say why the CJP members, who included a 72-year-old woman, were detained, some of whom were taken to the 10th Assam Police Battalion in Guwahati.

The detention drew criticism from CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and opposition leaders. Condemning the “totally unacceptable and illegal” police action, Jorhat MP and State Congress president Gaurav Gogoi sought to know why the BJP was “scared” of the youth. “Is it because the youth rejected BJP’s Hindu-Muslim polarization?” he asked.

Published – 27 Sep 2026 12:27 IST