Leaders of India’s Cockroach party jailed for violating ban on protest site

Leaders of India's Cockroach party jailed for violating protest ban

The full report

Leaders of India's Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) have been jailed for five days after violating a ban on protests at a designated site in central Delhi.

Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, leaders of the CJP movement, were ordered to spend five days in Delhi's Tihar prison for jumping over police barricades and holding up slogans at Jantar Mantar.

The CJP leaders said the action was taken to demonstrate against the brutal crackdown on youth protesters in Delhi over the weekend and the decision by the Delhi police to shut-down Jantar Mantar.

The CJP, alongside opposition political parties and student groups, have accused the election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, of revising India's electoral roll to advantage the ruling Narendra Modi government.

The election commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.

The police denied permission for the protest on Saturday to take place and instead imposed a sweeping security crackdown, deploying about 30,000 police and paramilitary to prevent the demonstration.

More than 7,000 people were detained, and the police declared that protests would no longer be allowed at Jantar Mantar, instead proposing three alternative venues, which provoked outrage among the CJP leaders.