\n<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI: A New Delhi court ordered on Sunday the release of three leaders of the \u201ccockroach\u201d movement, including its founder Abhijeet Dipke, their lawyer said, a day after they were detained.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cExecutive Magistrate court releases Abhijeet, Saurav (Das) and Ashutosh (Ranka),\u201d lawyer Ratna Singh said in a social media post.<\/p>\n The trio were detained on Saturday ahead of a major protest against the country\u2019s election commissioner.<\/p>\n Indian police detained thousands of protesters trying to take part in a major demonstration in New Delhi against the country\u2019s election commissioner, the group said Saturday.<\/p>\n The protest is the culmination of weeks of opposition mobilisation following allegations of misconduct during a nationwide voter roll revision by the Election Commission of India (ECI).<\/p>\n The CJP \u2014 which began in May as a satirical online movement \u2014 also said that thousands of protesters were detained in New Delhi as they attempted to march to the main Jantar Mantar protest site, defying a massive security clampdown.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 15,000 protesters have been detained,\u201d Ajinkya Shinde, a CJP leader, said at a news conference in Delhi.<\/p>\n Police did not immediately respond to AFP\u2019s request for comment on detentions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be back, let them fill up all the jails,\u201d Shinde said.<\/p>\n Dozens of protesters shouted anti-government slogans as they were taken away in police vehicles, AFP reporters witnessed.<\/p>\n The Hindu newspaper reported more than 5,000 protesters had been detained, although it was not immediately possible to verify that number.<\/p>\n Media outlets, including the Scroll and Newslaundry, said their journalists had also been briefly detained.<\/p>\n Calls for ECI chief Gyanesh Kumar to step down have intensified in recent weeks as opposition parties and critics said the voter roll revision could disenfranchise millions of constituents, benefitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n The ECI has rejected allegations of impropriety, saying the revision was intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, including \u201cforeign illegal immigrants\u201d.<\/p>\n Ahead of the protest, authorities in the capital deployed thousands of police, closed dozens of metro stations, cancelled more than 200 trains and temporarily shut down mobile internet around the protest site.<\/p>\n The demonstrations are widely seen as a reprise of the \u201ccockroach\u201d movement\u2019s mass mobilisation in July, which led to the education minister stepping down over an examination scandal.<\/p>\n This time, protesters are demanding Kumar\u2019s resignation and a halt to the voter revision exercise.<\/p>\n \u2018Protect the constitution\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The accusations are a fresh challenge for 76-year-old Modi during his third term in office.<\/p>\n Opposition parties have long alleged that legitimate voters are being struck off lists in India, the world\u2019s largest democracy with 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n The voter list overhaul, which began in 2025, has led to more than 133 million names being excluded from draft rolls, according to Indian media reports citing ECI data.<\/p>\n The issue flared up last month when the Indian Express newspaper reported that key decisions linked to the revision were likely taken without the approval of two of the three election commissioners.<\/p>\n The ECI, a constitutional body, says all its decisions were unanimous and legally valid.<\/p>\n Angry demonstrators told AFP they were being denied the right to protest peacefully.<\/p>\n Political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay told AFP the protest comes at a time when Modi appears to be \u201cat his weakest politically and individually\u201d.<\/p>\n Though India\u2019s next general elections are not slated until 2029, the country\u2019s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls next year.<\/p>\n \u201cI see this becoming a bigger challenge in the coming months,\u201d Mukhopadhyay said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n