Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
- Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and other party leaders detained on landing in Delhi
- 43,000 police and security personnel deployed across Delhi
- Internet services suspended in central Delhi, massive restrictions in place on metro and railway services
- Over 500 protesters reportedly detained by authorities
- CJP called for a rally — that has not been authorized by police — to oppose ongoing revision of voter lists and demand resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar
Here is our rolling coverage of developments from India on Saturday, October 10:
Skip next section Delhi police say they’ve detained 500 protesters headed for ‘Cockroach’ marchPublished 10/10/2026Published October 10, 2026last updated 10/10/2026last updated October 10, 2026
Delhi police say they’ve detained 500 protesters headed for ‘Cockroach’ march
Delhi Police said in a statement that around 500 people were detained on Saturday as they arrived for the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party, news agency ANI reported.
“Around 500 people coming in different groups from various locations have been detained,” ANI quoted the Delhi Police statement as saying.
The police added that an additional 50 people had been arrested and described them as “anti-social elements with criminal antecedents” who had been taken into custody to ensure that they “did not disturb” public order or “incite trouble.”
Visuals aired by Indian news channels earlier showed police in central Delhi chasing young protesters before forcing them into vehicles and taking them away.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O64XSkip next section ‘Cockroach Party’ founder Abhijeet Dipke has been detained10/10/2026October 10, 2026
‘Cockroach Party’ founder Abhijeet Dipke has been detained
Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has been detained by Delhi police, Indian media reported, as a preventative measure to block the planned protest against India’s election chief in central Delhi.
According to reports by several media outlets, including India Today, authorities detained Dipke on board a flight after he landed in Delhi on Saturday morning. The news outlet quoted Dipke as saying, “I’m not afraid of you,” while police officers urged him to cooperate.
The CJP’s X handle soon released footage of the detention. “Shame on you Narendra Modi, Amit Shah,” the caption read, referring to India’s prime minister and home minister, respectively.
Authorities have also detained CJP’s co-conveners Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, as well as the group’s legal aid head, Ratna Singh.
Right before being arrested, Dipke posted a video on Instagram, showing tens of Delhi police officers lining up outside his airplane to enter. “Love you, we’ll do it together, Inqalab Zindabad,” one of Dipke’s associate is heard saying in the video’s background.
‘Inqalab Zindabad’, meaning ‘long live the revolution,’ is a famous slogan used by Indian freedom fighters during their struggle against British rule. It has regularly been used by the Cockroach party against the Modi government.
The preventative arrests are part of a major crackdown on protesters this weekend.
Most of central Delhi, where the government is headquartered, is under an internet blackout and riddled with barricades, which authorities are using to identify and stop potential protesters.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O66CSkip next section BJP calls CJP, INDIA bloc ‘anarchists’ 10/10/2026October 10, 2026
BJP calls CJP, INDIA bloc ‘anarchists’
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) National President Nitin Nabin held a press conference in New Delhi, denouncing the CJP and opposition party protests over voter list irregularities as an attempt to “create a highly dangerous and serious situation in the country.”
He described the INDIA bloc of opposition parties and the Cockroach movement as “two anarchic groups.”
“Your ‘anarchist competition,’ vying to see who can create more instability in the country, will not succeed,” Nabin said, accusing both groups of “a plot to destabilize the country.”
“I want to say that you are undertaking these efforts, driven by your political agendas, at the behest of foreign forces,” he said without elaborating on who the foreign forces were.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O66FSkip next section YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has been detained, reports say10/10/2026October 10, 2026
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has been detained, reports say
Popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has been detained by the police ahead of the Jantar Mantar protest, according to the CJP and Indian media reports.
“Dhruv Rathee has been detained. The Dictator is TERRIFIED of young people who question its wrongdoings and refuse to stay silent,” the CJP wrote on X, referring to Prime Minister Modi.
According to reports, Rathee was detained at his home in Gurugam. Earlier this week, the CJP officially launched Rathee as part of its “fight to save democracy” campaign.
The Germany-based YouTuber participated in a CJP protest in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Thursday.
CJP legal head Ratna Singh is also reported to have been detained at her home in New Delhi on Saturday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O64USkip next section India protest: Why do protesters want Gyanesh Kumar to resign?10/10/2026October 10, 2026
India protest: Why do protesters want Gyanesh Kumar to resign?
After India’s education minister, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement has Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in its crosshairs.
Here is a ten-point breakdown of the controversy surrounding the top election official:
- The protests concern a contentious, nationwide voter-verification exercise — called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — which began last year. Around 130 million names have been removed so far from electoral rolls under the process.
- Kumar heads the three-member Election Commission of India (ECI) overseeing the SIR process.
- Last Month, The Indian Express newspaper published a report alleging differences within the ECI over decisions related to the SIR.
- According to The Indian Express, Kumar’s two fellow election commissioners raised at least 14 formal objections over a 10-month period regarding voter registrations, deletions and restorations, as well as control of electoral roll data, but their concerns were allegedly not taken into consideration
- The report said that in one objection, one of the commissioners complained that the ECI had acted against the written advice of two commissioners and claimed its action was “unauthorized and illegal.”
- The report sparked a political storm with protests calling for Kumar’s resignation, for allegedly undermining the poll body’s credibility.
- The ECI has maintained that all its decisions were lawful, saying that differing views were a routine part of the decision-making process.
- Kumar is yet to address the allegations against him.
- Opposition leaders and critics say that those removed from the voter lists include a large number of minority voters.
- They accuse Modi’s BJP of using the exercise as a tool to secure future electoral gains and question the ECI’s independence. The ECI says the SIR removes deceased, relocated and duplicate voters and helps prevent the inclusion of “foreign illegal immigrants.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5O62fSkip next section Delhi police detain people at protest — ANI 10/10/2026October 10, 2026
Delhi police detain people at protest — ANI
Police have already detained some protesters who had started gathering at Jantar Mantar for the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest, ANI news agency reported.
On Friday the Delhi Police said that Section 163 of India’s criminal procedure law had been enforced in the New Delhi area, prohibiting all forms of assembly or protest.
Meanwhile, Indian news agencies reported that police had heightened security across the capital on Saturday, with flag marches and mock drills being conducted at several locations.
Entry and exit gates at several metro stations have also been closed, according to reports.
ANI also reported that spike strips had been deployed to deter protesters from moving through certain areas.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O60XSkip next section WATCH — Will Cockroach protest ‘Season 2’ take off?10/10/2026October 10, 2026
WATCH — Will Cockroach protest ‘Season 2’ take off?
The protest is being dubbed by some as “Season 2” of the Cockroach movement in India. The first wave of protests culminated with the resignation of India’s education minister over exam irregularities, a rare concession by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party.
DW’s Shalu Yadav takes a closer look at how the Indian government is preparing for CJP’s latest protest call in this report:
https://p.dw.com/p/5O60eSkip next section CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke set to arrive in Delhi 10/10/2026October 10, 2026
CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke set to arrive in Delhi
The Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) founder, Abhijeet Dipke, was due to land at Delhi’s main airport on Saturday morning as the movement plans to hold a mass protest calling for India’s Chief Election Commissioner to step down over sweeping voter roll revisions, despite being denied permission by police.
Police and paramilitary forces, which local media reported numbered around 43,000 personnel, were deployed ahead of the protest. Multiple layers of yellow metal barricades blocked the concrete-grey roads leading to the Jantar Mantar protest site.
On Friday, authorities also ordered the closure of more than 50 metro stations and canceled many trains bound for two major railway stations in the capital.
But India’s top court later directed the government to not completely halt train services and said there should be no blanket closure of metro stations.
The Supreme Court stressed the “principle of proportionality,” urging authorities to allow the transportation services in a regulated manner to avoid public inconvenience.
“Take measures only to the extent necessary to prevent them. But that does not mean you should use a hammer to kill a fly. That principle must be kept in mind,” legal news website Bar and Bench reported the court as saying.
On Saturday, Dipke denounced the Modi government over extensive restrictions.
“Modi has accepted defeat even before our protest has begun,” the CJP chief wrote on X ahead of his arrival in the capital.
“The mass crackdown on protesters and the shutdown of Delhi are not signs of strength, but of a leader terrified of his own people.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5O60VSkip next section Pressure grows on India’s chief election commissioner — and Modi10/10/2026October 10, 2026
Pressure grows on India’s chief election commissioner — and Modi
The CJP is not the only group calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
India’s bloc of opposition parties, led by Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, has been carrying out a sustained campaign against Kumar in recent days, including organizing its own protest marches.
The country has seen dramatic visuals emerge from Delhi’s key corridor of political power, showing leading opposition MPs, including Gandhi, being carried away to detention buses by uniformed police officials as they tried to dig their heels in.
The ire against India’s election chief, who heads the country’s independent Election Commission, is turning into one of the biggest public and political challenges for Modi during his three terms in office.
Opposition leaders and critics allege that a mass deletion of tens of millions of voters from India’s electoral rolls benefits Modi’s Prime Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge the party denies.
https://p.dw.com/p/5O60WSkip next section Welcome to our coverage10/10/2026October 10, 2026
Welcome to our coverage
This is Dharvi Vaid Dhulia from DW’s studio in New Delhi and this is a special edition of our daily India news blog.
As the early morning hours tick away, a countdown to a rally against India’s top poll official over alleged voter list irregularities has begun in the heart of the world’s largest democracy.
What’s happening?
India’s “Cockroaches” are once again headed to Jantar Mantar — the same protest site where the online satirical movement sprung to the mainstream as a youth-led pressure group in July after forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s then education minister.
Police have denied the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) permission to hold the demonstration, but the group’s leaders are urging people from across the country to converge on Jantar Mantar, calling the protest a “fundamental right.”
A showdown between police and protesters appears imminent.
New Delhi, particularly its central areas, have effectively been turned into a fortress under a heavy security blanket, including thousands of paramilitary personnel, a rare mobile internet blackout, train cancellations and police warnings against any protest gathering.
The security measures come while memory are still fresh of a clashes between youth demonstrators and police during the July Cockroach protest. Police used batons, tear gas and pellet-firing shotguns to disperse the crowd.
Several injuries were reported. Protesters alleged police brutality, while police said force was used only after the demonstration ceased to be peaceful.
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Stay with us as events unfold.
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