New Delhi: A Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) in Delhi has extended the judicial custody of the top two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, on Monday (October 19). They will remain in Tihar Jail two days beyond their initial judicial custody, announced on October 14. The initial custody period was supposed to end in five days.Das and Ranka were arrested during their protest at Jantar Mantar, in which they sought to unfurl the national flag a day after the Union government denotified it as a protest zone. The lawyer representing Ranka and Das, Abhik Chimi, has said they will challenge the order.“Remember this is an issue of preventive custody – there is no FIR against my clients,” Chimni told reporters. “They have been kept in jail because of the fear that they will go and protest,” he said.The order from SEM Ritu Raj came as the CJP legal team sought their release, arguing the period of custody was over. The Delhi Police had sought a further five days of custody.The SEM ruled that Das and Ranka “showed no respect for law”, in that they staged a protest at a de-notified Jantar Mantar. “I deem fit that an opportunity be given to the respondents and submissions advanced on both sides,” Ritu Raj said.The order also notes that the photograph on the bond signed by the surety and the one on their Aadhaar card did not match, citing this as another reason to deny the two their freedom.Chimni said the five-day custody period was over, and the SEM had said the surety was not legitimate for the fourth time on Monday. “Today we brought fresh surety and then we produced them [Das and Ranka] in court.” He said the police claimed the photographs of the person offering to be the surety was “not matching” since the person had shorter hair.The order passed by the Special Executive Magistrate, whose proceedings take place at Mandir Marg Police Station in Delhi.He said the state produced a “new application” with “absolutely shocking” reasons to keep the two in custody further, They said there is an “imminent threat” to public order, and so they must stay in custody longer.“It is very very disturbing to us that in the entire affidavit there is no statement on record of apprehension – it only refers to previous protests, which were legitimate,” Chimni told reporters.“Today the surety that was produced, the SEM’s court sat with them for 15 minutes, with their details and documents, and then said they cannot be accepted on the ground that they had no control over Saurav [Das] and that they had a photograph mismatch,” said the advocate.The two were arrested on October 14 during demonstrations against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The protest called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over widespread exclusion of voters – numbering close to 13 crore so far – during the revision process.Responding to the development, CJP’s legal head, Ratna Singh, said in a statement, “Our advocates spoke strictly on points of law , yet the authorities failed to present a single piece of evidence showing any threat to public peace,” Singh said.Delhi Police, which took the two leaders into cusody, argued that Das and Ranka could disturb public order or instigate further protests if released, citing alleged violations of peace bonds they had previously signed. Their detention is under preventive legal powers rather than a determination of guilt based on evidence at trial.There were repeated delays during the bail proceedings as well, with Singh repeatedly taking to X repeatedly to highlight delays over surety documents submitted on behalf of the two, which were repeatedly rejected on allegedly vague grounds. Reports also said the magistrate handling the matter recused himself after citing a threat to his life. These claims have added to concerns surrounding the handling of the case.Addressing the media after the hearing, Singh stated that the entire proceedings functioned like a farce designed solely to crush democratic voices. “Our advocates spoke strictly on points of law , yet the authorities failed to present a single piece of evidence showing any threat to public peace,” Singh said. Ratna Singh also stated that “There was no protest call given by the CJP after the JC of Ashutosh & Saurav; for the state to claim that there was threat to peace by their release”.