Two leaders of India’s “Cockroach” youth movement were sentenced by a local court to serve five days in jail after being detained during a protest demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief, the group said.
Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among about a dozen people detained by police on Tuesday after they climbed over barricades to enter the grounds of Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory in central New Delhi that has long been a site for protests.
Police said this week that the site was no longer an official protest venue and accused Ranka and Das of trespassing and defying prohibitory orders.
The arrests follow a sweeping police crackdown over the weekend aimed at preventing mostly young Indians from gathering in New Delhi to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Police briefly detained thousands of demonstrators.
“Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India. We will reclaim it,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on X in a post condemning the arrests as “an act of cowardice”.
Protests have intensified over an ongoing nationwide revision of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
The Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries. — AP
