India’s ‘cockroach’ movement chief detained ahead of major protest

Indian police detained Abhijeet Dipke, the head of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, and two other leaders before they disembarked from a flight in New Delhi. According to the CJP, the detentions occurred ahead of a planned major protest against the Election Commission.

The CJP had called for mass demonstrations in the capital, demanding the resignation of the country's election chief over alleged voter-roll irregularities. The protests are the culmination of weeks of opposition mobilisation following allegations of misconduct during a nationwide voter-roll revision.

Thousands of police were deployed in New Delhi, and transportation in and around the city was restricted ahead of the demonstrations. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected allegations of impropriety, stating that the "special intensive revision" was intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, as reported by Dawn.

Brief written by urgent.news from Malay Mail, Dawn — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.