India 'Cockroach' Leaders Freed from Jail After Trespassing at Protest Site
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By Abhishek Dey
BBC News
Published 12 minutes ago
Two leaders of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, have been released from Tihar jail a week after their arrest for trespassing at the banned protest site, Jantar Mantar, in Delhi.
They were detained by police and jailed after crossing barricades and climbing over a locked gate at Jantar Mantar. The historic venue had been removed from a list of designated protest sites.
The men, who denied wrongdoing, have been advocating for the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the commission of manipulating voter rolls to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A special executive magistrate court in Delhi granted their bail, as reported by legal news website Bar and Bench.
Upon their release, Das expressed triumph, stating, "Truth alone triumphs. Long live the revolution."
Das and Ranka, key figures in the CJP, initially gained attention as an internet joke after India's top judge compared unemployed young people to "cockroaches". The CJP, however, evolved into a significant force, mobilizing thousands of young people to protest against leaked exam papers and later shifting its focus to India's electoral system.
They, along with opposition parties and critics, allege that the Chief Election Commissioner revised electoral rolls (SIR) to favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have denied these accusations.
The SIR exercise has resulted in the removal of approximately 130 million names from voter lists over the past year, raising concerns among critics that eligible voters might be excluded.