A court in the Indian capital has ordered the release of the top leaders of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), even as Delhi prepared for a second day of protests. Thousands of security personnel were deployed across the city, and roads were barricaded.
Abhijeet Dipke, who started the movement in May, and other leaders were detained on arrival in Delhi on Saturday. They had planned to lead protests seeking electoral reforms. Police refused them permission to demonstrate, and unprecedented curbs were put in place to stop protesters from reaching the venue.
Court orders release of three senior CJP leaders
On Sunday morning, CJP lawyer Ratna Singh said police had told her that Dipke and two other senior leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, would be produced before a magistrate. Police were seeking their remand “to maintain public peace”.
Singh later posted on X that the three had been set free by the court “on the condition that they will not engage in breach of peace for one year”. It is not clear what that condition means or whether the CJP leaders can take part in protests. The arrests had come after police officials boarded the flight carrying Dipke, Das and Ranka and detained them as the plane landed.
Delhi under lockdown-style curbs as thousands turn up
Police had refused permission for the protest at Jantar Mantar, a landmark in the capital, and the city was in near-total lockdown to keep protesters away. At least 45 metro stations were shut, and Delhi’s main railway stations were closed with major train services cancelled. Many protesters trying to travel from outside the city were removed from trains along the way.
Much of Delhi looked like a city under siege, with roads blocked and offices, shops and restaurants closed. The day began with expectations of a large gathering at Jantar Mantar, but only a handful of protesters reached the site before police quickly removed them. The road the CJP had occupied for weeks earlier this summer stayed barricaded at both ends, guarded by thousands of police and paramilitary personnel.
Elsewhere, thousands of protesters still turned up, including activists and senior lawyers, and many were detained. Student leader Neha Bora tried to march from Dilli Haat to Jantar Mantar but was also stopped and taken away. Media reports said 7,000 people were detained on Saturday and released late that night.
One woman who evaded police and reached Connaught Place said: “In a democracy, everyone has the right to protest and to say if we are not happy.” The CJP has called for more protests on Sunday.
Electoral roll row sits at the heart of CJP demands
The CJP, which is not registered as a political party in India, is seeking electoral reforms just months before crucial state elections. It has also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulating voters’ lists. The Election Commission has denied the allegations.
The dispute centres on a large exercise to update electoral rolls nationwide. The commission has described it as a routine effort to weed out dead, duplicate or ineligible voters. At least 130 million voter names have been purged so far, and in many states tens of thousands of people have alleged they were wrongly removed.
The CJP and opposition parties accuse Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the way the rolls are being updated. The Election Commission and the BJP have denied this.
How a viral post built the Cockroach Janta Party
The group grew out of a joke Dipke made in response to remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant, who had likened jobless youngsters to “cockroaches”. Dipke later said the comments were misinterpreted. He had just completed a master’s degree at Boston University and previously worked with the opposition Aam Aadmi Party when he posted on X in May: “What if all cockroaches come together?”
The post went viral, and the CJP was born. Momentum built around anger over unemployment, exam paper leaks and government accountability. The movement first emerged during weeks of summer demonstrations demanding education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. That five-week protest ended in celebration in July, after the education minister resigned.
