HIGHLIGHTS | Anti-CEC protest in Delhi: Over 200 detained, including Dipke, , AISA Neha and Yogendra Yadav; Chennai protestors detained

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar was scheduled to begin at Jantar Mantar at 10.30 am on Saturday (October 10).

However, Delhi Police detained CJP founder Abhijit Dipke and leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka aboard their flight shortly after it landed at 10.19 am. Dipke later said the organisation's in-charge Ajinkya Shinde would lead its protest as long as he and two other leaders remained in detention.

Police has denied permission for the demonstration and deployed heavy security across New Delhi. As protesters attempted to reach Jantar Mantar or regroup at other locations, police detained over 200 people, using drones to monitor movement across the area. Two police personnel were injured in stone-pelting near Akashwani Bhawan, officials said.

The CJP has called the proposed demonstration against the CEC over allegations of voter-list manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and changes relating to Form 6, used for voter registration.

The CPI(M) on Saturday held protest marches across Keralam following the detention of party leaders in Delhi during an agitation against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

CPI(M) leaders, including Pinarayi Vijayan, M A Baby and M V Govindan, were detained near Kerala House in Delhi.

In Keralam, protests were held in Kozhikode, Kannur and other areas. A DYFI protest in Palakkad turned violent, prompting police to use water cannons to disperse demonstrators. Authorities remained on alert amid expectations of further protests.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to produce before it a woman, who was allegedly detained while travelling to Delhi for the Cockroach Janta Party's protest, or ensure her safe return to her family by Tuesday.

The woman, Preeti Londhe, was travelling on the Goa Express to attend the CJP's protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi when personnel from the Railway Protection Force deboarded her at Itarsi station in Narmadapuram district on Thursday and handed her over to the state police.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Saturday claimed that its leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained from inside the aircraft by Delhi Police as soon as their flight landed in the national capital.

The CJP leaders had arrived here from Mumbai for their protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

In a video shared by the CJP, Dipke can be heard telling police officers who entered the aircraft: "Police are not allowing to deboard the flight. They are causing inconvenience to the other passengers. You can see where the nation is heading. They are here to arrest us literally from the flight. This is something that not even Indira Gandhi had done. This is dictatorship as Delhi Police has entered in the flight to arrest us. We are here to be arrested, come and arrest us."

Police sources said Dipke, Das and Ranka were taken to different places.

Dipke was taken to Gurugram, Ranka to Delhi's Dwarka, and Das to some other location in Delhi, they said.

Ahead of the CJP's proposed protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, DMK president M K Stalin on Saturday said "dissent is not a crime", and that democracy cannot survive by silencing those who rise to defend it.

He alleged that the scenes unfolding in Delhi and the "scale of repression being unleashed against peaceful protesters," bring him back the painful memories of the infamous Emergency (1975-77) that he lived through.