The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the online youth movement whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of India’s education minister, has given the central government until Tuesday to formally withdraw criminal cases against protesters and release all those detained, warning it will resume its agitation if the assurance is not honoured in writing.

CJP national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday alongside Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, said the group was still awaiting the government’s promised written agreement on the withdrawal of FIRs against protesters and organisers.

“In the third round of talks, we had agreed that all FIRs filed against protesters and organisers across the country would be withdrawn and no new FIR would be filed against any organiser and protester,” Ranka said.

The demand follows the CJP’s decision to call off its 36-day sit-in at Jantar Mantar on July 25, after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned and the Centre pledged to withdraw pending cases, compensate the families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide, and take no further punitive action against demonstrators.

That understanding has since come under strain. The CJP said it had received reports of students being held in detention, particularly in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, and accused the government of backtracking on its assurance that no punitive action would be taken against protesters.

“If the government does not honour the agreement and release everyone detained or arrested, we will be compelled to resume the protest,” Ranka told reporters.

The Indian government has not issued an official statement on the matter. At least 100 people have been arrested, many of them on stringent non-bailable charges, across the country, according to the group. CJP spokesperson Saurav Das said the movement has set up a legal fund to help meet the expenses of protesters implicated in criminal cases by the police.

The CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May by 30-year-old public relations graduate Abhijeet Dipke. Tens of thousands of protesters, mainly students, rallied last week in New Delhi and other cities demanding Pradhan’s resignation and broader reforms of the examination system.

Protests turned violent

Demonstrations in the capital turned violent on July 20 when large crowds attempted to march towards parliament from the Jantar Mantar protest site. Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse the crowd, triggering clashes and a wave of detentions.

In Bihar’s Siwan district, a police official was suspended for using an assault rifle to disperse student protesters on Saturday. “He has been suspended, and the three people injured in the incident are undergoing treatment,” police superintendent Puran Kumar Jha told AFP on Monday.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has called for an independent investigation after a petition was filed in the Supreme Court alleging police brutality.

Local media quoted him as saying the “right to peaceful, lawful protest is absolutely guaranteed” under the Indian constitution, adding: “If there is excess committed, it should be independently examined… discipline is integral to democratic process.”

Uproar in parliament

The issue also reverberated in parliament on Monday, with repeated disruptions as opposition lawmakers demanded a response from the government over last week’s police crackdown.

“It is one of the gravest assaults on democracy in our history,” Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on X. “Never before have students been beaten, dragged, and treated like criminals for raising their voices.”

Despite the disruptions, the government introduced legislation in the lower house seeking tougher penalties for examination paper leaks.

— With inputs from AFP