Indian court orders release of 'Cockroach' movement leaders after seven days in custody
A Special Executive Magistrate in Delhi ordered the release of Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka after their seven-day judicial custody expired, rejecting a police plea for a further three-day extension.
A New Delhi court on Wednesday ordered the release of two leaders of the youth-led “Cockroach” movement after seven days in judicial custody, Reuters reported, citing legal website Live Law.
A Special Executive Magistrate ordered the release of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka after their judicial custody expired, rejecting a Delhi Police plea for a further three-day extension. The two were produced before the magistrate, where their sureties were submitted during the proceedings, local media reported.
Das and Ranka were detained after they were among 14 people who scaled barricades to enter Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory — a day after it was removed from the list of designated protest sites. They unfurled the national flag and chanted slogans demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. A court remanded them to five days of judicial custody on 14 October, then extended their custody by two days on Monday after Delhi Police requested more time to question them.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi High Court declined to intervene in their custody, asking them to await the magistrate’s decision.
The youth-led CJP has held near-daily protests this month over voter-list changes it says favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The Election Commission has denied favouring any party, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
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