India releases ‘cockroach’ leaders as movement calls for more protests

CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were released Sunday by an executive magistrate's court on condition of no breach of peace for one year, lawyer Ratna Singh said. Police had boarded their flight a day earlier and detained them at Delhi airport from Mumbai ahead of a protest seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over voter-roll revisions. Dipke left court in a black vehicle and posted that Modi as PM is an embarrassment to India and never has the country seen a bigger coward and bully. Reports said 7,000 people were detained Saturday and released late at night; at least 45 metro stations shut and reopened Sunday with heavy security. Only a handful of protesters reached Jantar Mantar before police removed them. AFP puts electoral-roll removals at more than 133 million; BBC at least 130 million. Election authorities say the revision cuts duplicate, deceased and fraudulent entries; CJP and opposition accuse Kumar of favoring the BJP, which the commission and BJP deny. Rahul Gandhi said youth would take to the streets Monday in large numbers and crackdowns would grow Gen Z anger. The UN human rights office called for release of those arbitrarily detained. The Supreme Court was set to hear a Sunday petition on metro and train closures.