New Delhi: Leaders of the Cockroach Party said on Saturday that their protests will continue until Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resigns. Speaking to reporters in Delhi, they said the agitation has expanded beyond the capital to other parts of the country.
The party acknowledged that courts have issued directions on the protests, including a warning that demonstrations should not be conducted in a manner that disrupts peace. However, leaders said they would not yield to what they described as government pressure and insisted they had not signed any undertaking to stop protesting.
Delhi Police, acting on court directions, released party leader Abhijit Deepke and his associates Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranga from preventive detention. Police said more than 20 FIRs were registered in connection with the protest against the special intensive revision of the voter list and for allegedly gathering in violation of permissions.
Separately, YouTuber Dhruv Rathi, who had come from Germany to take part in the protest, was taken into preventive custody from his home in Gurugram and released later. In a video posted on social media, he claimed he was “abducted” and kept at a police station.
After the detentions and subsequent releases, normalcy returned in Delhi and metro and other rail services, which had been temporarily halted following the party’s call for a protest at Jantar Mantar, resumed operations. Deepke also left for his native place in Maharashtra to attend the funeral of his grandmother Savitri Bai Shankarrao Deepke (85), who died due to ill health.
