Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers who "sneaked" into Jantar Mantar to "reclaim" the popular protest site and were detained on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera.
CJP supporters and opposition parties have held protests nearly every day this month to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over voter list revisions, which critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Thousands joined a protest march on Monday, after a clampdown foiled CJP plans for a weekend demonstration, and police detained thousands of protesters over the weekend.
The Delhi Police announced on Monday that Jantar Mantar, an open-air astronomical observatory, was no longer designated an official protest site, and that three new venues had been identified for demonstrations. CJP leaders and supporters went ahead with their protest plan anyway and were taken into custody.
"You cannot denotify the resistance," CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on X after their detention. A video posted to his account shows about a dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans as police arrived. In an earlier post, Dipke said the government's efforts to block the site would not deter their campaign. "If Modi thinks taking away Jantar Mantar will put an end to protests, he is mistaken. Jantar Mantar is not just a location but a spirit of resistance that nobody can ever take away," he said.
The Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The youth-led movement, which has mobilised protests in recent months over a range of issues, is among the biggest political challenges to the BJP and Modi in his 12 years in power. The Election Commission has denied favouring any party with its revisions to the voter list, and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.