India's 'cockroach' movement founder released from police custody

India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was released from detention on Saturday, a day after his arrest during a police crackdown on protests against the election authority.

Dipke, 31, was detained Friday in New Delhi as he headed to join a rally that the CJP protest movement had called in the capital's central Connaught Place district.

He walked out of a police station Saturday afternoon waving to the media and giving a thumbs up as he was driven away, an AFP photographer saw.

"Abhijeet Dipke released," CJP legal affairs chief Ratna Singh said on social media.

Opposition parties and CJP activists have defied a security crackdown, rallying to demand the resignation of India's chief election commissioner after accusing the poll body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

More than 130 million votes ‌were deleted during the revision.

The commission, which oversees voting in the world's most populous nation, has denied any wrongdoing.

Watch moreHow far will 'Cockroach' movement go? India's youth-led protests defy Modi government

Dipke was detained on Friday as he ​stepped out of a house in central Delhi, with police hauling him into a police car and driving away after a brief argument.

Dipke had ​called Friday's protest in support of two CJP leaders jailed this week for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.

The two leaders, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were arrested on October 14 after entering Jantar Mantar, a decades-old protest site that police have declared off-limits for demonstrations. They remain in custody.

"Now just waiting for my brothers to be free", Dipke said in a post on X that included a photo of Ranka and Das.

In a separate post on Instagram, Dipke said he "knew going to jail was inevitable" and that he was ready to face "whatever comes my way".

"Because the day I decided to come back to India, I placed my fate in the hands of the people of India and the Constitution of this country."

Student activist ‌Neha Bora, a prominent face of the protests, who was also detained on Friday as she tried to reach central Delhi with dozens of ​supporters, was released on Saturday.

"Please, spare the people of India. Impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR (special intensive revision), so that the ordinary citizens of this country can breathe a sigh of relief, feel at ease, ​and have their voting rights ensured," Bora told ANI news agency after she was released.

Members of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have long alleged that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India's electoral rolls.

Rights groups and critics however say the Modi government has eroded democratic freedoms during more than a decade in power, citing pressure on journalists, civil society groups and political opponents – allegations the government rejects.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)