Guwahati, Sep 27 — More than 30 workers of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), including four members of its central committee, were detained by Assam Police in Guwahati on Sunday ahead of the party’s regional volunteers’ meeting, party leaders said.
CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka was among those detained. He alleged that police action began in the morning despite the proposed gathering being a peaceful meeting on private property.
“Police were acting like goons since morning. It was a peaceful meeting at a private property, but police kept detaining our team members, and now all of us have been detained,” Ranka alleged.
The party’s regional volunteers’ meeting was initially scheduled at 10 a.m. at Assam Shree Parshuram Seva Sadan on Kharga Choudhury Road in Athgaon. The organisers later shifted the venue to Chowdhury Tila, opposite the Assam Secretariat, after alleging that pressure had been brought on the management of the original venue to cancel the booking.
Ranka, who arrived in Guwahati on Saturday along with other CJP members, including Ankit Bhardwaj, Akash Prem, Varun Agrawal and Anam, had earlier said that the cancellation of the venue would not prevent the party from holding its programme in Assam.
Before his detention, Ranka accused the Assam government of attempting to prevent the party from raising questions over issues concerning the state.
He alleged that the party wanted to highlight the condition of government schools, the impact of what it described as man-made floods and other public issues.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma is afraid that we will expose the condition of the schools here, the reality of man-made floods and other issues. That is why they are threatening us. But he does not know what we are made of. We will not stop until we expose them,” Ranka said.
He further alleged that CJP members had been stopped and threatened by authorities since morning, but maintained that the party would continue with its activities.
As of Sunday afternoon, Assam Police had not issued an official statement explaining the reasons for the detentions or confirming the number of people taken into custody.
The incident comes as the CJP seeks to expand its organisational activities in Assam, with the regional volunteers’ meeting intended to bring together its supporters and members in the state.