// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
India's 'cockroach' party founder detained ahead of protest
Abhijeet Dipke's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has drawn thousands onto the streets in recent months
The founder of India's "cockroach" protest movement, Abhijeet Dipke, has been detained in Delhi ahead of a planned march in the heart of the capital.
His detention follows a police warning against holding Friday's march, with thousands of security personnel deployed across the city to prevent the gathering.
Dipke's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is demanding the resignation of India's election chief over allegations of voter list manipulation. The Election Commission denies the charge.
The group had asked its supporters to come to a park in Connaught Place, one of Delhi's busiest commercial districts, to wave the Indian flag.
The turnout was smaller than at earlier CJP demonstrations though the crowd seemed to be swelling. The BBC saw some young protesters being detained and shoved into a bus which already held some female detainees - there were about 50 female police personnel in the bus, vastly outnumbering the protesters.
Dipke had just left home and was moments away from reaching his vehicle when the BBC saw police officers surround him and force him into a police car. Some CJP supporters tried to block the vehicle from leaving.
Anish Gawande, the opposition politician at whose house Dipke had been staying, questioned why police had detained him. Police have not yet publicly confirmed the grounds for the detention.
"Detaining a lone man walking with the national flag in his hand is a bit of a joke," Gawande said.
It was the second time in less than a week that Dipke was detained. Last Saturday, police boarded his plane shortly after it landed in Delhi and took him away before he could reach a planned demonstration.