New Delhi: Leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party, an Indian youth protest movement, were released on Sunday, a day after they were detained ahead of demonstrations against a controversial revision of voter lists.
The three leaders, Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were released on the condition that they commit “no breach of peace for one year”, according to Ratna Singh, the movement’s legal director.
The three had been taken into custody after police boarded their flight from Mumbai when it landed in New Delhi on Saturday. They had been preparing to lead a protest in the capital.
The detentions came amid a wider security crackdown in New Delhi, where authorities detained more than 2,000 protesters, including opposition lawmakers. Train services to the capital were cancelled, metro stations were closed and mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the city.
Police said most of those detained were released later on Saturday.
The protests are focused on a voter list revision that critics argue is politically motivated. The revision process, which began last summer, has removed more than 130 million names from voter rolls.
Protesters are demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, India’s Chief Election Commissioner. Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission have denied allegations of manipulation.
The Cockroach movement emerged this summer as an online satirical campaign after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Supporters adopted the cockroach as a symbol of resilience.