India: CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke released after detention

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was released on Saturday, a day after he was detained by the Delhi police during protests against the election authority in India.

The 31-year-old youth leader was detained while he was trying to join the protest rally which the CJP movement had called in the capital's central Connaught Place district.

The movement published a photo of him on X in which it referred to Dipke as "a free man."

"Abhijeet Dipke released," CJP legal affairs chief Ratna Singh said on social media.

Singh said Dipke was released after agreeing to certain conditions. She did not provide details about the terms.

In a post on Instagram, Dipke said he "knew going to jail was inevitable" and that he was ready to face "whatever comes my way."

"Because the day I decided to come back to India, I placed my fate in the hands of the people of India and the Constitution of this country."

What are the protests about?

All India Students' Association (AISA) President Neha Bora, who was also detained during a protest in New Delhi on Friday, was released later on Friday evening.

Bora has emerged as a prominent face in the protests against India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over alleged manipulation of voter lists.

A widespread review exercise — called Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — has struck off over 130 million names from India's electoral rolls since it began last year.

Opposition leaders and critics say that those removed from the voter lists include a large proportion of minority voters. They accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP of using the exercise as a tool to secure future electoral gains.

The neutrality of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is also being questioned.

The ECI denies favoring any party. It says the SIR removes deceased, relocated and duplicate voters and also helps in preventing the inclusion of "foreign illegal immigrants."

Youth being made 'pawns' — BJP

Modi's party has slammed its opponents for undermining democracy and has denounced the protests as attempts to create "anarchy".

BJP's Rajnath Singh — who is also India's defense minister — addressed the protests at a press conference on Friday.

Singh accused the opposition, led by the Congress party, of wanting to bring a "regime change along the lines of Bangladesh" and using Indian youth as "pawns in the politics of disorder."

"It appears that the Congress and its political allies, both directly and through their affiliated organisations, are attempting to channel the energy of young people not into constructive activities and nation-building, but into instruments of political confrontation and the spread of chaos," he said.

Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka's custody ends Sunday

Two other senior CJP leaders, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were arrested on October 14 for entering Jantar Mantar.

Jantar Mantar had been a prominent protest site in the heart of Delhi for decades. However, Delhi police blocked it amid heavy barricading and deployment.

The two leaders were sent to five days of judicial custody, which ends Sunday. The CJP has warned of legal action if Das and Ranka are not released.

"Now just waiting for my brothers to be free", Dipke said in a post on X that included a photo of Ranka and Das.

Edited by: Karl Sexton