Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke remained in Delhi Police detention on Saturday after his 85-year-old grandmother, Savitribai Shankar Dipke, died in the family’s native village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, according to a report by The Indian Express. It was not immediately clear whether Dipke would be released or allowed to travel for her last rites.
Savitribai died at Santuk Pimpri village in Hingoli district, The Indian Express reported. Dipke’s parents, Bhagwan and Anita, left for the village after receiving the news. The report said there was no immediate confirmation of whether Dipke had been informed of the death.
Dipke was detained inside his aircraft shortly after it landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday morning. He had travelled from Mumbai with CJP spokespersons Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka for a planned protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
In a video recorded inside the aircraft, Dipke is heard telling police personnel, “I have come here to get arrested. Go ahead and arrest me.” The Indian Express reported that the CJP condemned the detention and demanded the unconditional release of its leaders.
Dipke’s father, Bhagwan, asked the police to disclose the law under which his son was being held. His mother, Anita, said the family supported his work. The report did not include an immediate police response explaining the legal basis for the detention or whether the detained leaders would be permitted to attend the funeral.
The proposed protest concerned the CJP’s objections to alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. According to the report, the party has claimed that more than 13 crore names were deleted from draft rolls and has also raised objections to changes in Form 6, the form used to register new voters. These claims were presented in the context of the party’s protest demands and were not independently established in the supplied report.
Dipke had also questioned why police permission was required to protest at Jantar Mantar, which is a designated protest site, and argued that peaceful assembly was a constitutional right. The detention at the airport has therefore placed both the proposed demonstration and the police action before it at the centre of the immediate dispute.
A day earlier, at an interaction organised by Loksatta in Mumbai, Dipke spoke about the personal cost of the agitation. He said his parents had been hospitalised during an earlier Jantar Mantar protest and that he had avoided leaving the demonstration because he feared being accused of running away. He also said his family experienced fear when he travelled for political activity.
The immediate next step remained dependent on the Delhi Police’s decision on Dipke’s detention and whether he would be allowed to travel to Maharashtra for Savitribai’s last rites. No such decision had been confirmed in the report.
