Delhi Police Detain Thousands, Including Opposition Leaders and CJP Founder, Ahead of Anti-CEC Protest

Delhi Police detained more than 2,000 people on Saturday, including the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party and several senior opposition leaders, as they moved to prevent a planned protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The CJP and allied groups had called the demonstration over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Abhijeet Dipke, along with co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, was detained inside their aircraft shortly after it landed from Mumbai. Video circulated by the group showed police boarding the plane. Dipke told officers he had come only to be arrested. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained from his residence in Gurugram. CJP legal head Ratna Singh and student activist Neha Bora were also held.

Opposition leaders detained included former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and several Trinamool Congress MPs, Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal, former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby, Brinda Karat, and former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. Some were released later in the day; CJP leaders remained in custody as of Saturday night.

Police deployed roughly 25,000 personnel and imposed prohibitory orders around Jantar Mantar and surrounding roads. Metro stations were closed in parts of the city and some train services restricted. Protesters who reached other locations staged small sit-ins before being detained and taken to stadiums and temporary holding centres. The CJP later claimed higher numbers of detentions; police figures stayed in the low thousands.

The Cockroach Janta Party emerged earlier this year after India’s Chief Justice compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches. Dipke and others turned the remark into a political identity focused on electoral transparency and youth concerns. The group has organised previous actions and gained visibility through social media.

The Election Commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have rejected allegations of misconduct in the voter-roll revision. BJP spokespersons described the planned protest as an attempt to destabilise institutions. Congress and other opposition parties said they would continue legal and political challenges, including a planned larger demonstration on Monday.

A contempt petition was filed in the Supreme Court alleging that the transit restrictions and detentions violated earlier court directions on protest rights. The court scheduled a special Sunday hearing. Habeas corpus petitions were also filed for several detained leaders.

By late Saturday most detainees had been released except the core CJP leadership. The group announced that Ajinkya Shinde would coordinate further actions and called for another gathering at Jantar Mantar on Sunday morning. Police maintained heavy deployments overnight.

The scale of pre-emptive detentions and the entry of officers onto a commercial aircraft drew criticism from opposition parties and some civil-society groups. Authorities said the measures were necessary to maintain public order after permission for the rally had been denied. The episode added to ongoing disputes over the conduct of the Election Commission and the space available for street protest in the capital.