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

The Indian court has ordered the detention of two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in jail for five days, according to both the party and police reports. The detentions occurred a day after the leaders scaled barricades to enter Jantar Mantar, a historic site often used for protests, and chanted slogans demanding the resignation of the election chief.

The incident has the potential to spark further protests by youth supporters, particularly as opposition groups and student bodies continue to hold nearly daily demonstrations calling for the resignation of Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over voter list revisions that they claim favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Election Commission has denied any favoritism towards any party and stated that wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused its rivals of attempting to undermine democracy by questioning the legitimacy of electoral processes. The CJP leaders involved in the incident, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were among a dozen individuals who jumped barricades on Tuesday to enter the Jantar Mantar open air observatory in Delhi's central business district. Police have stated that the situation remains under control.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.