IQN (NewsDesk): Police in the Indian capital have detained the founder and several leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party, along with scores of supporters, as tens of thousands of security personnel were deployed to stop a youth led protest demanding the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner.
Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained after arriving at Delhi airport from Mumbai on Saturday. Police had earlier asked him to call off the protest, which authorities had banned. Party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained from their flight on landing, according to the movement. Dipke said Delhi police had boarded the aircraft and called the move a dictatorship. Police maintained it was not an arrest.
The movement is demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in voter rolls linked to the special intensive revision of electoral lists. Central Delhi was sealed off, travel and telecommunications links were suspended, and the interior ministry ordered an internet blackout in the area until 10 pm. A police source told Reuters about 200 protesters had been detained, while the party said popular influencer and activist Dhruv Rathee was also detained at the protest site.
Some demonstrators broke through police cordons near the Jantar Mantar protest site, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and election authorities, before being bundled into police vehicles. The party said police in several states had been detaining thousands of its supporters in the lead up to the rally, and condemned what it called a pre planned move to cripple the leadership of a peaceful demonstration.
