Delhi detains Cockroach movement leaders as restrictions disrupt protest

Police in New Delhi detained Cockroach Janta Party leaders and more than 1,000 people ahead of a planned protest against India’s election chief on October 10, 2026, Al Jazeera reported. Security forces sealed the intended gathering site, while transport and communications restrictions disrupted access to demonstrations in the capital.

The reported detention total includes protesters, opposition politicians, journalists, student leaders and lawyers. It is Al Jazeera’s tally, rather than a separately audited police count. The legal grounds for individual detentions, custody locations, any charges and subsequent releases were not established in the report.

Jantar Mantar sealed before planned gathering

The satirical Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, and other youth groups had planned to gather thousands of supporters at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in central Delhi. They were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls.

Al Jazeera reported that thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed, trains to New Delhi were cancelled, mobile internet services were suspended, and metro stations and markets were shut. Its account does not establish a complete list of affected services, the boundaries of the restrictions or how long they would last.

“I have come to get arrested. I am not afraid of you guys,” Dipke said in a video described by the outlet. His words express his response to the officers; they do not establish whether police formally arrested him or the legal basis for his custody.

Al Jazeera also reported the detention of YouTuber and Modi critic Dhruv Rathee, student leader Neha Bora, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and politicians Yogendra Yadav and Mamata Banerjee.

Smaller protests and calls to release journalists

Small demonstrations nevertheless took place elsewhere in Delhi, including at Dilli Haat. Al Jazeera reported that people attempting to protest and journalists covering demonstrations were detained and taken away in police buses.

Shranaya, a Students’ Federation of India state committee member identified by her first name, told the outlet that members had left their monitored office and reached a protest. Al Jazeera described police pulling her from a barricade and taking her away. She said demonstrators would return, without giving a confirmed timetable.

Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India’s board, called for the immediate and unconditional release of people detained solely for exercising freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Committee to Protect Journalists coordinator Kunal Majumder also urged police to release detained journalists and allow coverage without interference.

BJP spokesman Sambit Patra dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchic elements” and said India was calm and proceeding under good governance, according to Al Jazeera. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the detentions in a post on X quoted by the outlet, accusing the government of muzzling democracy.

Why voter-roll revisions are disputed

Protesters accuse the BJP and election officials of using voter-roll revisions to influence results. Opposition parties also allege that deletions affected recent state elections, Al Jazeera reported. Those accusations are not established findings of electoral manipulation or evidence that particular results were changed.

An earlier Election Commission announcement explains the stated purpose of one such exercise. On June 24, 2025, the commission announced an intensive electoral-roll revision in Bihar, where the previous intensive revision had taken place in 2003.

The commission said it sought to include eligible citizens, exclude ineligible entries and make additions and deletions transparent. It cited migration, urbanisation, newly eligible voters, unreported deaths and entries involving foreign nationals as reasons for updating the rolls.

The Bihar plan provided for house-to-house verification by booth-level officers and participation by political parties’ agents. It described claims and objections, inquiries into disputed entries and appeals to the district magistrate and chief electoral officer. Supporting documents were to be accessible only to authorised election officials for privacy.

Officials were also instructed to assist vulnerable eligible voters and avoid harassment. These were announced safeguards, not proof of their implementation. The 2025 statement is historical context: it is neither a response to the October 2026 detentions nor confirmation that the later dispute involved identical procedures.