India's 'cockroach' leaders jailed after holding protest

CJP's Ashutosh Ranka (L) and Saurav Das were detained at the Jantar Mantar on Tuesday morning

Two top leaders of India's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been sent to jail for five days after being arrested for allegedly trespassing at a protest site in Delhi.

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka appeared before a magistrate on Wednesday after being detained at Jantar Mantar, a longstanding venue for demonstrations that police recently removed from the city's list of authorised protest sites.

The two were among a group who climbed a locked gate and crossed barricades to enter the site on Tuesday.

The GenZ-led movement has been protesting for days seeking electoral reforms and the resignation of India's top election official over allegations of vote fraud - charges the poll panel denies.

Police accused Das, Ranka and their fellow activist Ajinkya Shinde of trespassing, breaching a peace bond, violating prohibitory orders and obstructing public officials - charges they deny.

Delhi's Special Executive Magistrate Court remanded Das and Ranka to five days in judicial custody, while Shinde was released on a personal bond. The two leaders can seek bail from a higher court.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been holding separate protests against the Election Commission, condemned the arrests, describing them as "an act of cowardice", and expressed support for peaceful demonstrations at Jantar Mantar.

"Students. Youth. Journalists. The [opposition's] INDIA bloc. Different banners, one cause. All protests are one: citizens demanding their constitutional rights," he wrote on X.

Other leaders of the opposition, like former chief ministers of West Bengal and Delhi- Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal respectively - also took to X to extend support to CJP and condemn the arrest of its leaders.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who was travelling to Delhi after the arrests, accused the government of cracking down on dissent and challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "declare the Emergency officially", according to news agency PTI.

His comments drew parallels with India's 1970s Emergency, a period when civil liberties were curtailed under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The CJP, which is a pressure group and not an official political party, has been demanding the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. Kumar and the Election Commission have denied wrongdoing.

Wednesday's actions follow a weekend of protests during which Das, Ranka, Shinde, and Dipke were taken into preventive custody ahead of planned demonstrations at Jantar Mantar. They were later released by a magistrate.

Hundreds of protesters were detained over the weekend

Police imposed extensive security restrictions across Delhi, closing several metro stations and deploying thousands of police and paramilitary personnel to prevent demonstrators from reaching the site. Thousands of people, including journalists, were detained and later released, while videos showed police forcibly dragging some protesters into buses.

Following the weekend protests, Delhi police removed Jantar Mantar from its list of authorised protest sites, instead designating three other venues - Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground.

The CJP criticised the decision, saying it would make demonstrations less visible and harder for protesters to make their voices heard.

On Tuesday, the activists returned to Jantar Mantar despite the restrictions. Videos shared by Dipke and other CJP leaders showed Das and Ranka climbing over police barricades, carrying Indian flags and chanting slogans.

"You cannot denotify the resistance," Dipke wrote on X.

Ratna Singh, head of the CJP's legal team, alleged that the activists were denied access to lawyers for several hours before being taken to Parliament Street Police Station in a private vehicle at about 03:00 local time (21:30 GMT on Tuesday).

She also rejected a police allegation that CJP leaders had called on others to join the protest at Jantar Mantar.

"Absolutely false! No public call was ever made," she wrote on X.

The CJP emerged from student-led demonstrations earlier this year over alleged exam irregularities and demands for education reforms.

Weeks of protests led by the movement culminated in the resignation of federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

CJP members were shouting slogans against election chief Kumar when the police detained them

The group began as an online satire movement after India's Chief Justice Surya Kant compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches during a court hearing in May.

He later said his remarks had been misinterpreted, but the comments had already become a rallying cry for young people demanding change.

Following the summer protests, the CJP developed into a wider pressure group, tapping into discontent over unemployment, examinations and government accountability.

The CJP launched its latest nationwide protests in Mumbai on 2 October, following an Indian Express report alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Kumar had ignored objections from his two fellow commissioners over changes to voter registration.

The newspaper reported that commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised concerns at least 14 times over 10 months about decisions taken without their knowledge, including changes affecting voter databases and electoral rolls. The Election Commission has denied the allegations, saying its decisions were unanimous.

The controversy has intensified scrutiny of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a voter verification exercise that opposition parties allege has benefited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission and the government denies this.

Although the CJP and opposition parties have not held joint protests, their demonstrations have coincided in recent days. Gandhi is among politicians, lawyers and journalists detained during protests across several cities.