Delhi Police detained thousands of people on Saturday as the Cockroach Janta Party, student groups and opposition parties tried to converge on Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the voter-roll revision. Counts varied widely through the day, with early police estimates near 1,000, The Hindu reporting over 5,000, PTI later citing more than 7,000, and the CJP itself claiming over 15,000. Police picked up CJP founders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka at the airport, and the party says they were held at an undisclosed location without access to lawyers. Other detainees included YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, AISA president Neha Bora, Mamata Banerjee, Kerala’s former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Left leaders, and hundreds more were held in Mumbai.
The administration had effectively locked down the capital, shutting entry and exit at 45 Metro stations, cancelling roughly 245 trains, enforcing prohibitory orders across central Delhi and suspending mobile internet within about 4 km of Jantar Mantar. Police said no protest would be permitted and called the situation fully under control, while Delhi’s chief minister and BJP leaders accused the opposition and the CJP of trying to create chaos and destabilise the country. Rahul Gandhi urged young people to keep protesting and Kejriwal called for turning the whole country into a Jantar Mantar. The UN human rights office voiced concern over the mass detentions and asked for the release of those held arbitrarily, and Amnesty International criticised the lockdown-like restrictions.
Police released most detainees by night but kept the CJP leaders, and the Supreme Court scheduled a special Sunday hearing on a contempt plea alleging that the transport shutdown defied its order of October 9. The CJP has announced a fresh protest on October 11, and the INDIA bloc plans a march in Delhi on October 12 to submit a memorandum to the Chief Justice.