New Delhi, October 11
The founder of India’s youth-led online “Cockroach” movement and two other leaders were released on Sunday, a day after they were detained ahead of a planned protest against the country’s election commissioner, their lawyer said.
Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were detained before they could leave their flight after arriving in New Delhi from Mumbai.
Ratna Singh, the party’s chief lawyer, said in a social media post that the three had been released by an executive magistrate’s court on the condition that they “make no breach of peace for one year”.
Dipke, wearing a white shirt, was seen leaving the court in a black vehicle shortly after his release, according to AFP reporters.
The detentions came amid a sweeping security operation in the Indian capital on Saturday, when thousands of people were reportedly detained to prevent them from gathering at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site. The CJP and Indian media reported the detentions.
The protest was organised to demand the resignation of the head of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a nationwide revision of voter rolls.
Media reports said the exercise had resulted in more than 133 million names being removed from electoral lists. Election authorities have said the revision was intended to eliminate duplicate, deceased and fraudulent entries.
However, critics argue that the process has disproportionately affected minorities, particularly Muslims, and could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party. The ECI has rejected allegations of wrongdoing.
Saturday’s detentions drew strong criticism from opposition leaders, who accused Modi’s government of suppressing dissent.
In Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the immediate and unconditional release of all those “arbitrarily detained” in New Delhi.
The CJP and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi have vowed to continue their protests despite the crackdown.
Gandhi said his Congress party and young people across the country would return to the streets in large numbers on Monday.
“The more Modi and his government crack down, the more the anger of Gen Z and students will grow,” he said.
