Two senior leaders of India's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been released after spending a week in prison, following their arrest for protesting at a prohibited site in New Delhi.

Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were jailed for demonstrating against alleged voter list fraud and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

The CJP is not a registered political party but a collective that first gained prominence by mobilising thousands of young people to protest over leaked exam papers.

By July, the movement had emerged as a major political force. A march towards parliament that month ended in clashes with police, drawing wider attention to the movement and increasing pressure on the government. The unrest eventually led to the resignation of India's education minister.

The CJP has since shifted its focus to India's electoral system.

Along with opposition parties, students and other critics of the government, the CJP accuses CEC Gyanesh Kumar of revising electoral rolls through an exercise known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), allegedly to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Both the BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the allegation.

The SIR exercise has resulted in around 130 million names being removed from voter lists since last year.

Critics warn that the process could also exclude eligible voters, potentially denying them their right to vote. The Election Commission says the exercise is intended to remove ineligible, deceased and duplicate entries.