India's 'cockroach' movement founder released a day after detention

NEW DELHI: India’s “cockroach” youth movement leader was released by an Indian court on Saturday, a day after he was detained for trying to lead another protest rally in New Delhi calling for the resignation of the country’s election chief.

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), rose to prominence this year when a weeks-long sit-in contributed to India’s education minister resigning.

CJP’s legal affairs head Ratna Singh said Dipke was released after he agreed to certain conditions. Singh gave no details of the terms.

Dipke’s youth-led group, opposition parties and student organisations have held near-daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that they say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision. The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.

Student activist Neha Bora, a prominent face of the protests, who was also detained on Friday as she tried to reach central Delhi with dozens of supporters, was released on Saturday.

“Please, spare the people of India. Impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR (special intensive revision), so that the ordinary citizens of this country can breathe a sigh of relief, feel at ease, and have their voting rights ensured,” Bora told ANI news agency after she was released.

Student groups call for more protest action

Dipke was detained on Friday as he stepped out of a house in central Delhi, with police hauling him into a police car and driving away after a brief argument.

Dipke had called Friday’s protest in support of two CJP leaders detained and sent to jail this week for five days for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.

Earlier on Friday, police had met Dipke and warned him against going ahead with the protest.

Student groups called for more protest action on Saturday.

The movement, which was mobilised by the youth and joined by many opposition parties, has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges faced by Modi and the BJP in the prime minister’s 12 years in power.