Published Oct 11, 2026 | 2:14 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 11, 2026 | 2:16 PM
The three leaders were detained on Saturday after their Air India flight from Bengaluru landed in Delhi.
Synopsis: Cockroach Janta Party leaders Abhijeet Dipke and Saurav Das have vowed to continue protests demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s removal and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, hours after a Delhi court ordered their release on the condition that they maintain peace for one year. Dipke and Das accused the government of using force and intimidation against protesters, and said the party would continue to demand accountability.
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has said the party would not back down from its protest demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, hours after a Delhi court ordered his release and that of party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, on the condition that they maintain peace for one year.
“Heading back to my village to be with my family during this moment of grief. Saurav and Ashu [Ranka] will address a press conference shortly in Delhi. The CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated. October 10 will go down as the beginning of the end of this dictatorship,” Dipke said in a post on X on Sunday, 11 October.
Heading back to my village to be with my family during this moment of grief.
Saurav and Ashu will address a press conference shortly in Delhi.
The CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated.
October 10 will go down as the beginning of the end of this dictatorship.
— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) October 11, 2026
The three leaders were detained on Saturday after their Air India flight from Bengaluru landed in Delhi. They had travelled to the capital to lead a protest called by the CJP with the support of Left student groups, trade unions and other organisations.
Dipke also lost his paternal grandmother later that day.
Das, in a separate post on X, accused the government of using force, intimidation and threats against citizens exercising their democratic rights.
“After Modi-Shah turned Delhi into a fortress and unleashed what can only be described as a war against their own citizens, one thing has become abundantly clear: Gyanesh Kumar is at the very heart of this government’s survival. The unprecedented use of force, intimidation and threats against citizens simply exercising their democratic rights has exposed the government completely,” he said.
“But we the young generation will continue to demand accountability. We shall neither be intimidated nor silenced. We are not backing down. We are returning with full strength!”
Delhi was placed under its biggest security lockdown since the COVID-19 pandemic ahead of the protest.
More than 26,000 police personnel were deployed across the city, with barricades erected at multiple locations. The Delhi Police prepared 12 detention centres, which began filling up as the day progressed.
Police also detained protesters travelling by train. By evening, around 3,000 people had been taken into custody.
Forty-five metro stations were shut and internet services were suspended. Student neighbourhoods were barricaded, police personnel were deployed outside major campuses, and bus services and cab movement into Connaught Place were severely curtailed.
Before Dipke was detained, several CPI(M) central committee members staying at Kerala House, on the same road as Jantar Mantar, attempted to march towards the protest site.
Former Kerala Chief Minister and senior CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan was among those detained. CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby and several others accompanying him were also taken into custody.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
