India 'cockroach' leaders who called on election chief to quit are freed from jail

Two leaders of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been freed from jail a week after they were arrested for trespassing at a banned protest site in Delhi.

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka walked out of Tihar jail hours after a magistrate ordered their release. They had been detained by police and jailed after they crossed barricades and climbed over the locked gate at Jantar Mantar.

The historic venue was recently removed from a list of designated protest sites.

The men, who denied wrongdoing, have been calling on India's chief election commissioner to resign. Critics accuse the commission of manipulating voter rolls to benefit India's governing party, charges the commission rejects.

A special executive magistrate court in Delhi, passed their release order, legal news website Bar and Bench reported.

After bail was granted, Das told reporters from a police van: "Truth alone triumphs. Long live the revolution."

Das and Ranka are key leaders of the CJP, which began as an internet joke in May after India's top judge compared unemployed young people to "cockroaches".

Source: BBC News World RSS (Open Press / Translated Full Text)