Dhruv Rathee Detained From Gurugram Home Ahead Of CJP Protest In Delhi

YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained by Delhi Police from his residence in Gurugram's Sector 56 on Saturday ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) proposed protest at Jantar Mantar, police sources said.

Rathee has come to join the demonstration, which has prompted heightened security arrangements across the national capital.

According to sources, a posse of around 50 policemen from Delhi Police landed at Rathee's Gurugram home on Saturday morning and detained him.

The detention evoked a sharp response from CJP which demanded "immediate release of Dhruv Rathee".

On Friday evening Rathee had posted a video in his X account announcing his participation in the Saturday's protest.

Rathee, a known critic of the Narendra Modi government, had arrived in India from Germany earlier this week and had joined the CJP protest in Bengaluru on October 8. 

Rathee commands a massive digital following across platforms, with 19.2 million followers on Instagram, 3.3 million on X and 33 million subscribers on YouTube.

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CJP Legal Cell head Ratna Singh also put out a video claiming that she has been detained in her ahead of the protest. Singh claimed that Delhi Police personnel landed at her house in the morning and asked not to leave. She added that as she sat in her car, a group policemen surrounded it and she was allowed to leave. "Cops didn't gave me any reason for detention. My car is not being allowed to meet," she said in a video posted from her car.

Earlier in the week, Delhi Police denied permission for the protest, citing security considerations and procedural requirements.

The police have stepped up preventive detentions and deployed their personnel at strategic locations to prevent protesters from reaching the protest site.

Over 400 people have been detained overnight, hundreds of trains cancelled and dozens of metro stations shut ahead of a mega protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the heart of Delhi today.

The CJP has mobilised supporters to join it at Jantar Mantar, with the Centre deploying over 20,000 personnel from the police and the Central Armed Police Forces to maintain law and order.