Delhi court orders release of two Cockroach Janta Party leaders
A special executive magistrate in Delhi ordered the release on Wednesday of Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), despite a police bid to extend their custody, the Telegraph reported. A special executive magistrate is a local court official with powers over custody matters, and the case was handled under judicial custody.
The two men had spent about a week in Tihar jail in Delhi after being arrested by Delhi police. The Guardian reported that, as a condition of their release, they were made to sign a bond, a written undertaking not to breach the peace again.
They were first charged with trespass and with violating the peace, and were sent to jail for five days. That period was later extended by two more days, and on Monday, October 19, a court said they would remain in prison for those two days, Reuters reported. According to the Guardian, they were arrested a second time after jumping police barricades and holding up an Indian flag at a site in central Delhi that police had cordoned off.
The cases are part of a wider string of protests in the Indian capital. A CJP march in Delhi about two weeks before October 21 protested alleged manipulation of the electoral roll, the official list of registered voters. That march led to the barricading of central Delhi and the detention of thousands of young people. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained on Friday, October 16, after calling for a peaceful demonstration in central Delhi in solidarity with Das and Ranka.
The Cockroach Janta Party began as online satire earlier in 2026 and grew into a political movement. The Guardian reports that Cockroach-led protests over the summer forced the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The CJP, along with allied opposition parties, student groups and civil society, is calling for the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They accuse him of overseeing a revision of the electoral roll that benefited the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and led to more than 130 million names being deleted. The BJP denies interference.
