Police detain leaders of India’s ‘cockroach’ movement at New Delhi protest

By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters. Published On 13 Oct 202613 Oct 2026.

Key points

• The Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.
• Nevertheless, CJP leaders and supporters went ahead with their protest plan at the Jantar Mantar and were taken into custody.
• "You cannot denotify the resistance, " CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke remarked ⁠on X after their detention.
• If Modi thinks taking away Jantar Mantar will put an end to protests, he is mistaken.
• The Election Commission has denied favouring any party with its revisions to the voter list, and remarked wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.

Police in the Indian capital have detained leaders of the country's youth-led "cockroach" movement after they jumped barricades to enter a popular protest site in New Delhi while calling for the resignation of the country's chief election commissioner (CEC) over voter list revisions.

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among regarding 20 volunteers who "sneaked" into Jantar Mantar to "reclaim" the popular protest site and were detained on Tuesday.

CJP supporters and opposition parties have held protests almost every day this month to demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar's ⁠resignation over the revisions. It critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

After a clampdown ‌foiled CJP intends for a weekend demonstration, thousands joined a protest march on Monday. Earlier, police detained thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders, over the weekend.

In practice, the Delhi Police confirmed on Monday that the Jantar Mantar open-air astronomical observatory was no longer designated an official protest site and that three new venues had been identified for demonstrations.

Notably, a video posted to his account ⁠demonstrates concerning a dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans as police arrived and detained them.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

In an earlier post, Dipke remarked the government's efforts to block the site would do nothing to deter their campaign.

"If Modi thinks taking away Jantar Mantar will put an end to protests, he is mistaken. Jantar Mantar is not just a location but a spirit of resistance that nobody can ever take away, " he remarked.

In practice, the youth-led movement, which has mobilised ⁠protests in recent months over a range of problems, is among the biggest political challenges to the BJP and Modi in his 12 ⁠years in power.

For context, the Election Commission has denied favouring any party with its revisions to the voter list, and remarked wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.

In short, police detain leaders of India's 'cockroach' movement at New Delhi protest is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.