India arrests Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijit Dipke — Dawn
As Dawn reports, citing the NDTV and India Today television channels, police in India have arrested Abhijit Dipke, the founder of the youth Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). This happened the day after he was detained ahead of a rally in Delhi, whose participants demanded the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
According to the television channels, Dipke was arrested to prevent a breach of public order. He was due to appear before a special executive magistrate on Saturday. Delhi police did not immediately respond to a Reuters email request for comment.
Protests over voter lists
CJP, opposition groups, and student organizations have held almost daily protests this month demanding Kumar’s resignation. Participants in the demonstrations link their demands to the special intensive revision of voter lists, which they believe favors Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
More than 130 million voters were removed from the lists during the revision. The Election Commission denies acting in favor of any political force and says that voters who were wrongly removed can restore their registration. The BJP accused its opponents of trying to undermine democracy by baselessly challenging legitimate electoral procedures.
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Detention of activists
Dipke was detained on October 16 as he left a building in central Delhi. Earlier that day, police met with him and warned him against holding the protest. He had called the rally in support of two CJP leaders who were detained this week and jailed for five days for demonstrating at a place where a ban on protests was in force.
Also on October 16, student activist Neha Bora was detained while heading to central Delhi with dozens of supporters. She was released the following day. After her release, Bora called for Gyanesh Kumar to be removed from office and for the special intensive revision of voter lists to be stopped.
Earlier this year, a weeks-long sit-in protest by supporters of the movement led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over leaks of examination questions.
