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Snapshot of the day
October 21, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia, Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh S.K.
A whole week into their dubious detention for attempting to protest at Jantar Mantar Road, the Cockroach Janta Party’s Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were released today after a special executive magistrate granted their bail and accepted their sureties. The duo was required to submit an undertaking saying they would not call for any protests at Jantar Mantar as long as it remains a denotified protest site and that they will not breach the peace again (which according to the authorities can even mean waving the national flag at a denotified protest site).
Former Delhi High Court Judge Justice S. Muralidhar strongly criticised the jailing of CJP leaders, calling their custody a “fundamental affront to the freedom of movement” and a clear example of the executive misusing the law.
But the movement shows no signs of backing down. Economist Parakala Prabhakar, actor-activist Prakash Raj, and others are set to join CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, at a nationwide anti-SIR protest on October 23, demanding that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls be scrapped and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign. The alliance has also called on people across the country to take to the streets under the slogan: “Har haath mein Tiranga, Har gali mein Jantar Mantar.”
Alongside taking demonstrators and others into custody the Delhi police also snatched their phones during the latest round of protests. A complaint has been filed accounting for 24 phones the authorities took away from detainees inside a van on October 11. The detainees allege that the cops told them they’d get their phones back after their release but that officers later refused to take responsibility for their devices or to give them seizure memos. One of those detained told Astha Savyasachi that the police were forcing detainees to delete pictures they took during October 10 and 11. With the phones remaining missing over a week later, senior advocate Suroor Mander points out, “these devices and numbers could be used for any kind of malicious activity. Who is stopping anyone from doing that?”
After Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer S. Chockalingam wrote to Nirvachan Sadan suggesting changes to the way the SIR is being conducted that would ease the burden on voters and officials alike, the EC
