NEW DELHI — Two top leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach movement have been sent to jail for five days for violating a ban on protests at a historic site in central Delhi, the party and police said on Wednesday.A court ordered that Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), spend five days in Delhi’s Tihar prison for jumping over police barricades, holding up slogans and waving the Indian flag at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.Das and Ranka appeared before a magistrate on Wednesday after being detained at Jantar Mantar a day earlier.The detentions risk triggering fresh protests by youth supporters at a time when opposition groups and student bodies are holding almost daily demonstrations to demand commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over voter list revisions that critics say favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).CJP leaders said the action was taken to demonstrate against the brutal crackdown on youth protesters in Delhi over the weekend and the decision by the Delhi police to shut down Jantar Mantar – a stretch of road surrounding an observatory in central Delhi – as the capital’s designated protest site, a status it has held for more than 30 years.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.“You cannot denotify the resistance,” Dipke said in a social media post which showed three of his fellow leaders entering Jantar Mantar, before they were tackled and detained by police on Tuesday.CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among about a dozen people who jumped barricades on Tuesday to enter the grounds of the Jantar Mantar open-air observatory in Delhi’s central business district.Police said this week that the site, previously designated for demonstrations, was no longer an official protest venue.Das and Ranka were sent to jail for violating a legal undertaking they had given authorities when they were released from detention last week, their lawyer Abhisht Hela told reporters.Police said they were punished due to their “repeated violations” and “serious apprehensions” that they would “again violate law and instigate others to violate law” if released on bail.CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde, who was released on a personal bond, said the party would not be “frightened” by its leaders’ imprisonment. “We will put an end to this dictatorial government,” he said.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.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.The Election Commission has denied favoring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.NEW DELHI — Two top leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach movement have been sent to jail for five days for violating a ban on protests at a historic site in central Delhi, the party and police said on Wednesday.A court ordered that Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), spend five days in Delhi’s Tihar prison for jumping over police barricades, holding up slogans and waving the Indian flag at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.Das and Ranka appeared before a magistrate on Wednesday after being detained at Jantar Mantar a day earlier.The detentions risk triggering fresh protests by youth supporters at a time when opposition groups and student bodies are holding almost daily demonstrations to demand commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over voter list revisions that critics say favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).CJP leaders said the action was taken to demonstrate against the brutal crackdown on youth protesters in Delhi over the weekend and the decision by the Delhi police to shut down Jantar Mantar – a stretch of road surrounding an observatory in central Delhi – as the capital’s designated protest site, a status it has held for more than 30 years.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.“You cannot denotify the resistance,” Dipke said in a social media post which showed three of his fellow leaders entering Jantar Mantar, before they were tackled and detained by police on Tuesday.CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among about a dozen people who jumped barricades on Tuesday to enter the grounds of the Jantar Mantar open-air observatory in Delhi’s central business district.Police said this week that the site, previously designated for demonstrations, was no longer an official protest venue.Das and Ranka were sent to jail for violating a legal undertaking they had given authorities when they were released from detention last week, their lawyer Abhisht Hela told reporters.Police said they were punished due to their “repeated violations” and “serious apprehensions” that they would “again violate law and instigate others to violate law” if released on bail.CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde, who was released on a personal bond, said the party would not be “frightened” by its leaders’ imprisonment. “We will put an end to this dictatorial government,” he said.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.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.The Election Commission has denied favoring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
Leaders of India’s Cockroach party jailed for violating ban on protests at Jantar Mantar
