Hundreds of thousands of these cockroach protesters had been assembling for over a month at Jantar Mantar, which is less than half a mile south of Connaught Place, the central market in the heart of Delhi. They were demanding the resignation of Pradhan, who is also a senior leader in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of Modi. The protesters at Jantar Mantar consider Pradhan to be responsible for failing to prevent “paper leaks”—the unauthorized release of highly competitive national college entrance examinations, often hours and sometimes minutes before the exam is due.

The Jantar Mantar movement emerged in May in response to a leak of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the countrywide medical entrance exam. Reports suggest at least a dozen students across the country died by suicide after the tests were canceled.