Delhi police detain thousands including Cockroach Janta Party leaders ahead of protest

Delhi police detained thousands of people on Saturday, October 10, 2026, to prevent a planned protest by the Cockroach Janta Party at Jantar Mantar. The party’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were removed from their Air India flight from Mumbai after it landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Video shared by the party showed police boarding the aircraft.

The Cockroach Janta Party began in May after Chief Justice Surya Kant compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches. It has grown into a Gen-Z led campaign focused on electoral roll revisions and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Election Commission has conducted a Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. Opposition parties say the process has removed more than 130 million names and disenfranchised eligible voters. The Commission and the BJP deny irregularities.

Authorities deployed about 25,000 to 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel. Roads were barricaded, metro stations closed, some train services cancelled, and mobile internet restricted in parts of the city. Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site, was sealed before demonstrators arrived. Police intercepted people at checkpoints and detained them before they reached the site. Detention numbers reported by media and the party range from more than 1,000 to several thousand. Later updates said most detainees were released except the core CJP leaders, who face legal proceedings.

Opposition politicians were also held. These included AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee, and Left leaders such as Pinarayi Vijayan. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained in Gurugram. Student activist Neha Bora and lawyer Prashant Bhushan were among others taken into custody. The INDIA bloc called the crackdown an undeclared emergency and announced a larger protest for Monday.

Ajinkya Shinde, designated to lead while Dipke remains detained, urged supporters to gather again on Sunday. He said that wherever police stopped people would become the new Jantar Mantar. Dipke had said before the flight that threats of jail would not stop the movement. Six police officers were reported injured in scuffles.

The detentions prevented a large gathering at the central site. The episode highlights the friction between youth-led online campaigns that have moved offline and the security measures used to contain them in the capital. Whether the voter-list revision produces lasting changes in the rolls or in public trust will be tested in coming elections.