India’s ‘cockroach’ leaders jailed after holding protest

Image source, LightRocket via Getty ImagesImage caption, 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.

They were detained after they 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 to help the police further investigate the charges, while Shinde was released on a personal bond.

Das and Ranka have the option of seeking bail from a higher court.

The arrests follow an earlier round of detentions over the weekend, when CJP leaders were taken into preventive custody ahead of planned demonstrations in the capital before being released by a magistrate.

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 has denied wrongdoing.

Delhi police have name three other sites in the city – Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground – as protest venues.

The CJP says the move will make demonstrations less visible and harder for protesters to make their voices heard.

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

Early on Tuesday, CJP founder Abjijeet Dipke and other leaders shared videos showing Das and Ranka entering Jantar Mantar. Footage showed the two – along with others – climbing over police barricades while chanting slogans and holding the Indian flag.

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

Image source, Ashutosh Ranka/XImage caption, CJP members were shouting slogans against election chief Kumar when the police detained them

The CJP had called for a protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, but authorities imposed extensive security restrictions across the capital to prevent demonstrators from reaching the site.

Several metro stations were closed, train services were disrupted and thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed.

Over the weekend, the police detained and released thousands of people, including several journalists. Some videos and photos from the protest show police dragging people, including women, by force and pushing them into buses.

The current protests follow student-led demonstrations earlier this year over exam irregularities and demands for education reforms.

The CJP led weeks of action that culminated in the resignation of federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The group began as online satire 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 seeking change.

After the summer protests, the CJP evolved into a pressure group, tapping into wider anger over unemployment, exam irregularities and government accountability.