Delhi Police has transferred all 57 FIRs linked to the recent Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest to its Crime Branch, bringing cases registered across different New Delhi district police stations under a single investigating unit.
Police sources said the transfer was prompted by the workload faced by district police, which regularly handles protests and demonstrations in the area, as well as the sensitive nature of some of the cases. A senior New Delhi district police officer said a unified investigation would allow the authorities to examine all cases connected with the protest together.
The Crime Branch will review the allegations, scrutinise evidence collected so far and investigate the roles of the people named in the FIRs. Delhi Police had earlier transferred two FIRs connected with the demonstration to the Crime Branch. The latest move covers the remaining cases registered in connection with the protest.
According to police, most of the FIRs invoke provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to disobedience of orders issued by public servants, violation of prohibitory orders, trespass, assault on government employees and obstruction of police personnel in the discharge of their duties. One case also includes a charge of criminal conspiracy.
The cases relate to events following the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site. On October 13, CJP co-convenors Das and Ranka, along with 14 other members of the organisation, allegedly attempted to stage a demonstration at the site. Police alleged that the group scaled barricades, entered the area and waved the Indian Tricolour before being surrounded and detained.
Das and Ranka were arrested the following day on alleged trespassing charges and were subsequently sent to judicial custody, according to the report. Ajinkya Shinde, who briefly emerged as a face of the movement in the absence of Abhijeet Dipke, was also arrested and later bound down by police.
Jantar Mantar has long been associated with public demonstrations in the national capital, making the regulation of access to the site a recurring administrative issue. The transfer places the connected cases under one agency rather than leaving them distributed among multiple police stations. The Crime Branch’s investigation will now determine how the allegations and evidence across the 57 FIRs are assessed.
