Indian court extends detention of ‘Cockroach’ leaders

The extension of the custody of the CJP activists comes amid a crackdown on near daily protests against the government.An Indian ‌‌court has extended the detention of two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).The extension for Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das on Monday comes amid a crackdown on near-daily protests against the government.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Photos: Protests over voter lists escalate in India’s capitallist 2 of 3Police detain leaders of India’s ‘cockroach’ movement at New Delhi protestlist 3 of 3India’s ‘Cockroach’ leaders jailed after entering ‘banned’ protest siteend of listThe two activists from the youth-led movement were arrested as they demonstrated at a historic protest venue despite a ban. Their jailing provoked a new protest in New Delhi on Friday.The CJP is a major force behind the protests, which have demanded the resignation of India’s election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya ⁠⁠Janata Party (BJP).Ranka and Das were ⁠⁠among 14 protesters who climbed over barricades last week to enter the Jantar Mantar observatory, the day after it was removed from a list of approved demonstration sites. A court later sent the activists to prison for five days.Indian media reported on Monday evening that they had been detained for two more days after police requested extra time to question them. Delhi ‌‌Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.“This is an absolute mockery of the judicial system,” the CJP’s legal head, Ratna Singh, told reporters outside the court, adding that the party would challenge the order in a higher court.The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have held near daily protests in October over the revision of voter rolls. [File: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images]The CJP, alongside opposition parties and left-wing student organisations, has led near-daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, after 130 million names were removed from voter lists.