India, Oct. 11 -- Delhi Police officers boarded an Air India flight at the capital's airport on Saturday morning and detained three leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) from their seats, shortly after the flight from Mumbai touched down ahead of their planned protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

The CJP called it a "pre-planned interception", and its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, said in a video shared by the CJP that the police could have detained them outside the plane.

The episode raises the question of who may step on board an aircraft once it has parked, and on whose authority. The published aviation security rules answer part of it.

Dipke and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka had flown in for...