Abhijeet Dipke, 2 CJP Leaders Under Preventive Arrest Before Day 2 Of Protest

Three men who are calling young protesters to reach Delhi's Jantar Mantar in protest against the chief election commissioner have been put under preventive arrest, sources said today.

Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka of the satirical political group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) that began as an online campaign had been under detention since yesterday morning amid protests.

They were taken away from inside a flight after it landed in Delhi on Saturday. Sources said the three will be taken to the court of the executive magistrate in Delhi Cantonment today.

In their absence, CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde said protesters will once again march towards Jantar Mantar today and will rest only after the chief election commissioner (CEC) resigns.

The preventive arrests happened on the second day of the planned protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the voter roll cleanup exercise Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Yesterday, over 3,000 protesters including politicians were detained and released later at night. The police created an unprecedented security ring around the national capital to prevent chaos at central Delhi's Jantar Mantar, forcing the protesters to break into several small gatherings across the city.

Standup comic Dhruv Rathee, who's also a supporter of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and a fierce critic of the NDA government, was among those who were released late on Saturday night.