Key leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were detained by Delhi Police on Tuesday after they entered Jantar Mantar, the protest site in the capital that police had blocked off.
The group said those detained included Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde. A video posted online by CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke showed protesters climbing over yellow metal barricades, running into the empty space and waving the national flag. Police then chased and detained them. “CJP sneaks inside to reclaim Jantar Mantar,” the group said in a social media post.
Delhi Police announced on Monday that Jantar Mantar had been removed from the list of designated official protest sites. They named three alternative locations. The site had already been sealed for several days and guarded by a heavy police presence.
Protesters have gathered there for decades, and earlier CJP demonstrations at the site led to the education minister stepping down in July over an examination scandal.
Opposition parties and supporters of the movement have taken to the streets in recent days despite a security clampdown.
They are demanding the resignation of the head of the Election Commission of India, accusing the body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. The commission, which oversees voting in the world’s most populous nation, denies any wrongdoing.
Dipke tagged Modi in his post and wrote, “You cannot denotify the resistance.”
Speaking at a business conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Modi called India the “mother of democracy” but did not mention the protests directly. He said people in the country openly debate a wide range of issues and discuss different perspectives.
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