India's 'cockroach' movement leaders detained in jail for five days, party and police say

NEW DELHI — A court in India has ordered that two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) be held in jail for five days, according to the party and police. This came a day after the leaders scaled barricades to enter a historic site frequently used for protests and shouted slogans calling for the resignation of the election chief.

The detentions could lead to additional protests by young supporters at a time when opposition groups and student bodies are holding nearly daily demonstrations demanding the resignation of Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The opposition argues that revisions to the voter list, which critics claim favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are unfair.

The Election Commission has denied any bias and stated that mistakenly deleted voters can re-enroll, while the BJP claims that rivals are attempting to undermine democracy by questioning the legitimacy of the electoral process. CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among a dozen individuals who jumped barriers on Tuesday to enter the grounds of Jantar Mantar, an open-air observatory in Delhi's central business district.