Sonam Wangchuk forcibly hospitalised; CJP founder begins fast, vows to march to Parliament on July 20

Activist Sonam Wangchuk was removed by police from the Jantar Mantar protest site on Saturday morning (July 18, 2026), disrupting the protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Also read: Highlights of Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike on July 18, 2026

Mr. Wangchuk, who was on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike, was captured within minutes by plainclothes police behind raised curtains, according to two people on the site, shortly after mobile internet in the area was briefly cut off. Safdarjung was admitted to the government hospital.

The forced hospitalization took place two days before the CPI’s planned march to Parliament, which the activist insisted on attending. Mr. Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, said she could not visit him while he was holding a smartphone and his personal doctor and lawyer were not allowed access. Central security personnel have been added to the entrance gates of Safdarjung Hospital.

Wangchuk denies interventions

New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police said in a statement that Mr Wangchuk was hospitalized following the Delhi High Court’s order to closely monitor his health. The court did not specifically decide to hospitalize him. Safdarjung Hospital said in an afternoon bulletin that Mr. Wangchuk refused to consent to intravenous or oral medical interventions while in the hospital. Ms. Angmo urged the hospital to shift her to a facility of her choice.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was held in a flat during the police operation in Jantar Mantar and was released only after Mr Wangchuk was hospitalised. Mr. Dipke vowed to continue Monday’s strike and announced that he, too, would begin a hunger strike. He called on people to gather at Jantar Mantar as he feared police would move in overnight to clear the area. Later in the day, Mr. Dipke was subjected to an ink attack. Delhi police caught the attacker, whose identity has not been disclosed yet.

The crowd filled the protest area until the evening hours; Police loudspeakers were urging them to evacuate earlier in the day, shortly after Mr. Wangchuk left. Three students from the All India Students’ Union of CPI (ML) Liberation continued their simultaneous hunger strike in the district.

Rejection of opposition

Opposition parties publicly condemned Mr. Wangchuk’s forced hospitalization. “It is wrong that Sonam Wangchuk ji was suspended from Jantar Mantar while she was on a non-violent hunger strike… No force can stop India’s students and those of us who love and believe in them from raising these issues,” said Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi, who held his own program on examination irregularities in Dehradun on Friday evening.

Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called for more crowds to gather at the protest site. Mr. Dipke and Mr. Wangchuk “are fighting for the future of your children,” Mr. Kejriwal said in a video message. “Staying at home will no longer work. Everyone must unite and go out on the streets. Only then will something change in this country.”

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said, “The news of Mr. Sonam Wangchuk being forcibly removed from the hunger strike site using force is highly condemnable.” “BJP’s mentality is divisive, so wherever there is unity, harmony and solidarity, BJP reacts as reactionaries out of fear and disperses movements.”

“A government that treats dissent as a threat rather than a democratic obligation cannot demand trust while evading accountability,” former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in a post on X.

D. Raja, general secretary of the Communist Party of India, told