NEW DELHI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – An Indian court said on Monday two “Cockroach” movement leaders would stay in prison for two more days, local media reported, after they were detained last week for demonstrating at a historic protest venue in violation of a ban.
Cockroach Janta Party leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among 14 people who scaled barricades on Tuesday to enter the Jantar Mantar observatory, a day after it was removed from a list of designated protest sites.
They unfurled the Indian flag and chanted slogans demanding the chief election commissioner’s resignation before police detained them, with a court later sending them to prison for five days.
On Monday evening, a local court extended their judicial custody by two days after Delhi Police requested more time to question them, local media reported.
Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is an absolute mockery of the judicial system,” the group’s legal head, Ratna Singh, told reporters outside the court, adding they would challenge the order in a higher court.
The youth-led CJP, opposition parties and left-wing student organisations have held near-daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that they say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, student leaders and several of their supporters were also detained on Friday as hundreds poured into central Delhi for a protest in support of Das and Ranka.
The ‘Cockroach’ movement has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges to Modi and his BJP in his 12 years in power.
A weeks-long sit-in by the group and its supporters earlier this year forced the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam paper leaks.
The latest demonstrations erupted after the Indian Express newspaper reported that Kumar’s two deputies had raised concerns internally about voter list changes, registration procedures and digital systems.
The 130 million names that were removed from voter lists starting last year — equivalent to more than the population of Japan — included 28 million people who have died, 63 million who have relocated and 30 million who could not be traced, according to the Election Commission.
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma, writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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