Guwahati, Sep 27: More than 30 workers of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), including four members of its central committee, were detained by Assam Police in Guwahati on Sunday ahead of the party’s first regional volunteers’ meeting. CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka Ranka, who arrived in Guwahati on Saturday along with other CJP members, including Ankit Bhardwaj, Akash Prem, Varun Agrawal and Anam, was among the detainees.

Before his detention, Ranka accused the Assam government of attempting to prevent the party from raising questions over issues concerning the state. He alleged that the party wanted to highlight the condition of government schools, the impact of what it described as man-made floods and other public issues such as protests in Kaziranga.

“Himanta Biswa Sarma is afraid that we will expose the condition of the schools here, the reality of man-made floods and other issues. That is why they are threatening us.

But he does not know what we are made of. We will not stop until we expose them,” Ranka said.

He alleged that police action began in the morning despite the proposed gathering being a peaceful meeting on private property. “Police were acting like goons since morning.

It was a peaceful meeting at a private property, but police kept detaining our team members, and now all of us have been detained,” Ranka alleged. The party’s first regional volunteers’ meeting was initially scheduled at 10 am at Assam Shree Parshuram Seva Sadan on Kharga Choudhury Road in Athgaon.

The organisers later shifted the venue to Chowdhury Tila, opposite the Assam Secretariat, after alleging that pressure had been brought on the management of the original venue to cancel the booking. Meanwhile, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke alleged that Assam Police has not informed the party leader about the charges or grounds for his detention.

" Ashu was picked up by Assam Police from a private residence. They have still not been told under what charges or on what grounds he has been detained," Dipke wrote in a post on social media.

Dipke further said that if Ranka is not released, he would travel to Assam along with other CJP members. “If Ashu is not released, I will go to Assam along with other CJP members.

Himanta can arrest us all,” he said, referring to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Meanwhile, the Opposition has trained their guns on the ruling dispensation, calling the detention, unacceptable, unjustified, and illegal.