Student Group Demands End to Harassment, Warns of New Protests
A student-led organisation, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has called on the central government to stop what it describes as the “targeting and witch-hunting” of students, warning of fresh peaceful protests if police harassment continues. The warning comes a day after the group expressed concerns over the government’s alleged failure to honour an earlier assurance that no punitive action would be taken against protesters.
On Tuesday, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke posted on social media platform X: “If the harassment of students at the hands of the police continues, the Cockroach Janta Party will respond with a massive peaceful protest soon.”
The Bihar government has confirmed that it has withdrawn all first information reports (FIRs) registered against protesters before 6 p.m. on July 26. Similar steps have been taken by the governments of Assam and West Bengal. However, the Delhi Police have not yet issued any statement on the matter. When contacted, the Delhi Police Public Relations Officer declined to comment. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma said, “We have not received any orders or official communication to withdraw the FIRs yet.”
No arrests have been made so far in connection with the protests. In the South East district, where prohibitory orders were imposed, 14 FIRs were registered and 600 people were detained and later released.
The CJP had called off its 36-day protest on July 25 after the central government agreed to three key demands: the removal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, compensation for families of those who died by suicide after the cancellation of the NEET exam on May 3, and the withdrawal of FIRs against protesters along with an assurance of no future action.
However, the group now says it has a “credible apprehension” that the government may misuse a Supreme Court order issued on Tuesday, which allowed state authorities to proceed with investigations into the FIRs registered during the protests. CJP chief spokesperson Saurav Das posted on X: “We now have a credible apprehension that the Government of India and BJP-ruled states may seek to use and weaponise this order of the Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to continue FIRs against individual protesters and subject them to great harassment. This was precisely our concern from day one: that courts could be used, directly or indirectly, to achieve political ends by targeting peaceful dissent.”
Later, Das said the central government had not yet provided the written assurance of the agreement reached three days ago, which it had promised to share by Tuesday night. “They met me in the evening and conveyed the court order. I shared my objections. There has been no response from them after that,” he added.
