Politics
Indian court orders release of two Cockroach movement leaders
October 21, 2026 at 04:29 PM · Updated 19h ago
Coverage
3 reports · 1 in Arabic, 2 in English · over 13 hours
BNBBC News
CJP protest: India 'cockroach' leaders who called on election chief to quit are freed from jail
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TGThe Guardian
Indian court orders release of two leaders of Cockroach movement
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AJAl Jazeera Arabic
دعوة أممية للتحقيق في قمع الهند لاحتجاجات المعارضة
(opens the publisher’s site)An Indian court ordered the release of two Cockroach movement leaders after a week in jail amid a crackdown on protests over alleged electoral roll manipulation.
- A special magistrate ordered Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka released on Wednesday after they spent a week in Delhi's Tihar jail.
- Das said "truth has triumphed" after the ruling, issued despite police efforts to keep the pair detained.
- More than 20 UN experts called for an independent investigation into police suppression of peaceful protests, citing force against unarmed students.
- The CJP, opposition parties and civil society call for election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over a voter roll revision that has deleted 130 million names.
- The Election Commission and the BJP denied allegations of bias in the Special Intensive Revision, the voter roll exercise at the center of the controversy.
- Student groups also accused the Special Intensive Revision of bias, joining opposition and civil society calls for Kumar's resignation.