Cockroach Janta Party co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka says Guwahati detention has ended

Assam Police on Sunday, 27 September 2026, detained Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convenor and chief spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka and several others from a private residence in Guwahati, The Hindu reported. The paper's photograph caption placed the scene near the Assam Secretariat. Ranka later said they had been picked up at Chowdhury Tilla, opposite the state secretariat in Dispur.

NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande told journalists that the others included 35 local volunteers and Ranka's associates, Ankit Bharadwaj and Prem Aakash, and that six of those detained with Ranka were women. He said they were taken to Dispur police station from a private residence where a volunteers' meet-up was scheduled, that they were not served a legal notice, and that they were not told the sections of law. "This is nothing short of jungle raj under Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is afraid of any and all kind of dissent," he said.

India Today reported that the detention came before the party's first regional volunteers' meeting. Ranka had arrived on Saturday and was due to address volunteers. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said police stopped what he called a small meet-up, and posted that they were being taken to an unknown location, India Today and Mathrubhumi reported.

Hours earlier, Ranka wrote on X that the road was barricaded, that police were ready with tear gas, and that volunteers were being stopped. Mathrubhumi reported a CJP statement that police told the party's lawyer they had instructions from "the top", that lawyers were denied entry, and that phones were seized. The party asked who ordered the detentions and on what legal basis.

In a video, and again as police took him away, Ranka alleged that the Chief Minister was "scared" the party would show schools, Kaziranga and what he called man-made floods. He alleged that rights in Kaziranga were being snatched for corporates, and that the Assembly election was won by redrawing boundaries. Gawande said they wanted to talk about schools without fans, classrooms and teachers, about evictions at Kaziranga, and about those boundaries. He cited land-rights activist Pranab Doley, who he said was arrested and then held under the National Security Act. These are their allegations.

The Hindu reported a CJP statement that 35 members then in custody, including Ranka, east and northeast in-charge Bhardwaj, joint secretary Premakash Golu and Assam coordinator Sahil, had begun an indefinite hunger strike until all 35 were released. The paper said police did not give a reason, that those held included a 72-year-old woman, and that some were taken to the 10th Assam Police Battalion.

The Hindu reported that the Chief Minister did not answer questions on the detention. He said he welcomed suggestions on health and education. "I will give the highest priority to such suggestions, either from the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), or Congress, or CPI(M) (Communist Party of India-Marxist), or CJP," he said.

Jorhat MP and state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi called the police action "completely unacceptable and illegal" and asked why the BJP was "scared" of the youth. "Is it because the youth have rejected the Hindu-Muslim polarisation of the BJP?" he asked, The Hindu reported. India Today reported that the CJP demanded immediate release and said its Assam campaign would continue.

The Hindu's later account said Ranka then wrote that the detention had ended, after he was released with the other detainees. "The illegal detention by Assam Police has finally ended. We have asked Police to go and drop us from where we were picked up illegally in the first place," he said. He said he would share further details of what happened at Chowdhury Tilla.

What's next

Ranka said he would give further details of the pick-up at Chowdhury Tilla. The reports do not quote police naming a section of law or a reason. India Today reported that the CJP said its work in Assam would continue.