India investigates alleged sexual harassment by police officers at Cockroach Janta Party protests

Indian police have launched an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against officers during protests in the capital against the country’s election commission.

Protests began on Friday demanding the Election Commission of India (ECI) chief Gyanesh Kumar step down, alleging wrongdoing during a large-scale voter-roll revision that has struck millions of names from the lists. The ECI has rejected allegations of wrongdoing, and Kumar himself has not commented.

The harassment allegations were made on Saturday, local time, when police detained scores of protesters around the government-designated protest site of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. In a video posted on social media, a complainant said a police officer pushed and touched her “inappropriately”.

A third day of protests is slated in the capital on Sunday, including by left-wing groups and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which began in May as a satirical online movement, succeeding in its campaign to oust the then-education minister.

The protests are likely to intensify over the next few days as an alliance of India’s opposition parties plans to launch protests to “save democracy” with a march to the Election ​Commission office on Monday. CJP chief Abhijeet Dipke, who warned against a police crackdown and detentions on Saturday, said that the accused officer “must be arrested immediately”.