A Delhi court dismissed a plea filed by Ratna Singh, the head of the Cockroach Janta Party’s legal wing, on Saturday, October 10, 2026. Singh alleged that police had wrongfully confined her outside her Jangpura residence during a nationwide crackdown on a youth protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over large‑scale deletions from electoral rolls.
According to Singh, officers surrounded the car she was in with advocates Tara Narula and Shivangi Sharma and cited verbal orders from higher authorities to prevent her from leaving. She claimed the confinement threatened her liberty, safety, bodily integrity and life, and that she repeatedly asked the police to state the legal basis for the restraint.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Abhinav Pandey ruled that the application was not prima facie maintainable. The court found that Singh had failed to file the required affidavit attesting to the truth of her allegations, had not specified the exact location of the alleged confinement, and had not identified the police personnel to whom the accusations were directed. Under Sections 175(3) and 174 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, an oath‑based complaint is mandatory, and the absence of an affidavit and of a named superior officer prevented the court from proceeding.
Singh had requested the registration of a first‑information report or a non‑cognisable report against the officers she said were responsible for her restraint, and urged the court to order an investigation. She said she feared that the situation could endanger her bodily integrity, health and life, and that higher officers might be complicit in the alleged wrongdoing.
