Plea in Madras High Court seeks probe into nationality of Cockroach Janata Party co-convenor Saurav Das

Saurav Das. File | Photo Credit: REUTERS The Madras High Court on Friday (October 31, 2026) ordered notice to the Centre on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition, which sought a direction to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to probe into the nationality of Saurav Das, co-convenor of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and cancel his passport and Aadhaar card if he is not found to be an Indian.The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan also ordered notice to Mr. Das on the PIL petition filed by R. Ganesh Kumar, a businessman from Chennai, who has also sought to block the X and Instagram handles of Mr. Das and prevent him from making derogatory statements against Supreme Court judges.In an affidavit filed through his counsel B. Jagannath, the PIL petitioner alleged that “the actual name of Mr. Das was Yogesh Sharma” and that he has “roots in Nepal.” The litigant accused the CJP leader of having concealed those details to “fraudulently” obtain an Aadhaar card, passport, and voter ID in India. He claimed that the material facts had been deliberately suppressed.“The said Respondent No. 06 [Mr. Das] has no genuine work. He is a jobless person self-styled to be a representative of the CJP and has used his social media handle to spread hatred amongst the youth with false and unsubstantiated allegations. One does not know how many passports the said Saurav Das is in possession of. In the interest of the nation, a deeper probe... needs to be undertaken,” the affidavit read.Listing several social media posts in which Mr. Das had criticised the judiciary, the litigant said that he, “most definitely”, must be receiving funding from abroad and that only an investigation would reveal his sources of funding. The petitioner further accused the CJP leader of having used his social media handles “only for the purpose of creating chaos, anarchy, disenchantment, and hatred against the ruling establishment.”“The Twitter [now X] handle of the said person along with the Instagram feed is only about abuse of judiciary and has radical communist leaning glorifying the radical leftists which highlight the fact that the said Yogesh Sharma [Mr. Das] is a Communist. Furthermore, he has called during the said Jantar Mantar protest to ‘storm the Parliament’ on the back of a protest called as reform in education,” the litigant added. Published - October 30, 2026 01:27 pm IST