The Indian youth movement Popular Party of the Cockroach (CJP) reported this Thursday that its spokesperson and leader detained the day before, Deepak Baliyan, has been released after "taking a 100-kilometer ride" while being held by the Police of the state of Rajasthan, in the west of the country.
"Deepak Baliyan was released late at night," communicated this morning on social media the co-organizer of the movement, Ashutosh Ranka, who added that "the Police of Rajasthan took him for a 100-kilometer ride, but then had to drop him back at his home." Ranka also emphasized that "there are limits that should not be crossed" and valued it as "good" that the regional police force "realized this in the end."
So far, Deepak Baliyan has not offered his own version of what happened, although on his profile on the social network X there is a statement signed by his team, in which it is reported that "Deepak Baliyan's phone has been destroyed by the Police of Kathumar," a town located in Rajasthan. "It has also been learned that he was promised a meeting with his mother -- citing her delicate health condition -- and that during this time his signatures were obtained," adds the message.
The CJP had already reported the day before that Baliyan was arrested in his home, claiming that their spokesperson "would have been dragged, beaten, and detained by the Police of Rajasthan, and taken to an unknown location." "This is the absolutely dictatorial face of this Government," stated the organization, accompanying its accusation with a video in which what would be the detention of the leader by Indian security forces is observed.
The detention made headlines amid a wave of protests in recent days against the head of the Indian Electoral Commission, Gyanesh Kumar, who is attributed with an attempt to manipulate the electoral roll to benefit the prime minister's party, Narendra Modi. The mobilizations, which demand Kumar's resignation, have been promoted precisely by this youth collective, organized around student assemblies, which has gained notable social influence this year to the point of forcing, last summer, the resignation of the Minister of Education after a scandal involving exam leaks.
Message to the police forces and defense of non-violence
In any case, the co-organizer of the Popular Party of the Cockroach has sent a message to all the police forces of the different Indian states in another publication disseminated shortly after. In it, after pointing out that "what they are being forced to do right now responds to higher orders," he questions the agents asking them "how can they raise their hand against their own children," and "how can they drag them away in the middle of the night, acting like bullies."
"Even during the British Raj, there were police officers who shot at their own compatriots claiming they were simply doing their duty. But remember: nowadays, the nation considers those agents as traitors," Ranka has emphasized, establishing a parallel with the colonial past.
Furthermore, he has insisted that the CJP follows "the teachings" of the leader of the independence movement Mahatma Gandhi and the architect of the Indian Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar," and that it remains faithful to "the path of non-violence and the Constitution." In this line, he has reiterated that "we will not raise our hand against anyone nor will we resort to violence. But you must also understand that, no matter what you do, tomorrow we will reach Jantar Mantar, come what may," referring to the event called by the movement at the nearly three-century-old astronomical observatories of Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan itself.