The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Saturday condemned the detention of YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in Gurugram ahead of a proposed protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The organisation criticised the action in a post on X, alleging that the Centre was afraid of young people who questioned its actions and refused to remain silent. The detention came as authorities prepared for the planned demonstration, for which permission had reportedly been denied.

Rathee, a Germany-based YouTuber who had recently travelled to India to participate in the CJP-led protests, was detained at his residence in the Kendriya Vihar society in Sector 56, Gurugram. According to the report, Gurugram Police officers visited his home on Saturday morning and asked him not to travel to the national capital to join the demonstration. Rathee was detained after he refused to comply with the request, the report said. The circumstances surrounding the detention placed the proposed protest and restrictions on participation at the centre of the controversy.

In its response, the CJP used strong language to criticise the authorities. The organisation wrote on X that the “dictator is terrified of young people who question its wrongdoings and refuse to stay silent.” The statement reflected the group’s opposition to the police action and its support for those seeking to participate in the planned demonstration. The allegation was the organisation’s political assessment of the incident and was not an independently established explanation for the police decision.

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Rathee was not the only person reportedly detained in connection with the planned protest. Content creator Kavya Karnatac, who uses the Instagram username ‘kk.create’, was detained in the Dhaula Kuan area of Delhi. Ratna Singh, the CJP’s head of legal affairs, was also detained, according to the report. The reported actions involving multiple individuals came ahead of the gathering at Jantar Mantar, where protesters intended to raise concerns about the Chief Election Commissioner and the electoral-roll revision exercise.

The proposed demonstration centres on opposition to the Special Intensive Revision process, which involves the revision of electoral rolls. The CJP’s planned protest also targets Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. However, the report did not provide a detailed account of the organisation’s specific demands or the police’s full reasoning for denying permission to hold the demonstration. It also did not specify whether the detained individuals would be released or face any further legal action.

The incident has brought attention to the dispute between the protest organisers and the authorities over the planned gathering in Delhi. While the CJP condemned the detentions and framed them as an attempt to silence young people questioning those in power, the police action was reported in the context of Rathee’s refusal to follow a request not to travel to the capital. Further details about the legal grounds for the detentions, the status of those detained and whether the protest would proceed remained unclear in the information available.

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