India youth protest leaders detained after entering barricaded Delhi protest site

NEW DELHI: India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said on Tuesday (Oct 13) that key leaders had been detained after entering an iconic protest site in New Delhi blocked by police.

Opposition parties and supporters of the movement have taken to the streets in recent days, defying a security clampdown to demand the resignation of the head of India's election commission, accusing it of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

The Election Commission of India, which oversees the voting process in the world's most populous nation, has denied any wrongdoing.

Delhi Police said on Monday that Jantar Mantar in the heart of the capital had been taken off the list of designated official protest sites.

The site has been sealed off for several days by yellow metal barricades and guarded by a heavy police presence.

But a video posted online by CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke showed protesters clambering over the barricades, before running into the empty space and waving the national flag - before police chased and detained them.

"CJP sneaks inside to reclaim Jantar Mantar," the group said in a post on social media, adding that those detained included leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde.

"All of them have been detained by Delhi Police," it added.

Delhi Police had announced three official sites on Monday as alternatives to Jantar Mantar, where protesters have gathered for decades - including CJP demonstrations that led to India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, stepping down over an examination scandal in July.

"You cannot denotify the resistance," Dipke said, tagging Modi in his post.

Modi, in comments at a business conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, called India the "mother of democracy", but did not refer directly to the protests.

"In our country, people openly debate a wide range of issues and discuss different perspectives," he said.