New Delhi:
Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka of the satirical political group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), who were put under preventive arrest this morning since their detention on Saturday from inside an aircraft after landing in Delhi, have been released by a local court. They were released on the condition that they will not do anything that would be considered a “breach of peace” for one year, sources said.
The three CJP leaders were taken to the court of the executive magistrate in Delhi Cantonment this morning. The preventive arrests happened on the second day of the planned protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the voter roll cleanup exercise Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Yesterday, over 3,000 protesters including politicians were detained and released later at night. The police created an unprecedented security ring around the national capital to prevent chaos at central Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, forcing the protesters to break into several small gatherings across the city.
YouTube activist Dhruv Rathee, who’s also a supporter of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and a fierce critic of the NDA government, was among those who were released late on Saturday night.
A big development today is expected to be the special sitting of the Supreme Court to hear a contempt petition against the blanket closure of Delhi metro stations and train services on Saturday. The metro is running this morning, though there is a huge security presence in all the exit and entry gates. There are buses parked nearby to take away detained people.
Preventive arrest u/s 126/170 BNSS of Sh. Abhijeet Dipke, Sh. Ashutosh Ranka and Sh. Saurav Das was done on 10.10.2026. All due legal procedures were followed and they were produced before the SEM Court, Delhi Cantt on 11.10.2026. A bail bond as Surety Bond of ₹50,000/- was filled for maintaining peace and good behaviour, for a period of one year, and they were released by the SEM Court.
— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) October 11, 2026
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana had on Friday directed that there should be no complete stoppage of metro services ahead of the protest planned for Saturday.
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Those who are running the CJP have said street protests would continue until accountability was fixed over the alleged deletion and manipulation of 13 crore votes. They alleged an “undeclared emergency” has been imposed in the national capital to prevent people from gathering peacefully.
The CJP, created by Dipke, a Boston University graduate who returned to India to lead the protest over NEET paper leaks that would cost Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan his post, has the backing of Opposition parties across the country.
The BJP has called the CJP an arm of the Opposition forces that is trying to destabilise the country. BJP chief Nitin Nabin has alleged Opposition groups have been looking to hurt India with actions directed by “foreign forces”.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “every individual has the right to express dissent in a democracy” but people must not “forget that spreading anarchy is not anyone’s right.” He said the Gen-Z may be “momentarily misled” but “can never be diverted from the goal of nation-building”.
