India ‘cockroach’ leaders who called on election chief to quit are freed from jail

Two leaders of India’s Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party have been released from jail after spending a week in custody over entering a protest site in Delhi. Their arrest came amid calls for the chief election commissioner to resign, as critics allege changes to voter rolls could favour the governing party.

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka crossed barricades and climbed a locked gate at Jantar Mantar, which has recently been removed from the list of designated protest sites; they deny wrongdoing. The Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party reject allegations that the voter-roll revision is politically motivated. The exercise has removed about 130 million names since last year, with the commission saying it aims to delete ineligible, deceased and duplicate entries.