Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke remained in Delhi Police detention on Saturday after his grandmother died in Maharashtra, with no immediate confirmation on whether he would be released or allowed to attend her last rites.
Savitribai Shankar Dipke, 85, died in Santuk Pimpri village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, according to a report by The Indian Express. Dipke’s parents, Bhagwan and Anita, left for the village after receiving the news. The report said it was not immediately clear whether Dipke had been informed of his grandmother’s 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.
The detention has placed renewed attention on how police manage demonstrations at designated protest locations in the capital. Dipke had questioned why police permission was required for a protest at Jantar Mantar and said peaceful assembly was a constitutional right. The report did not provide details of the legal provision under which he was being held.
The CJP has been demanding Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The party has also raised objections to changes to Form 6, the form used to register new voters. The report said the party had claimed that more than 13 crore names were deleted from draft rolls under the revision process.
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 CJP subsequently 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 had been held. His mother, Anita, said the family supported his work. There was no immediate confirmation from the police on whether Dipke would be released, permitted to travel to Maharashtra or allowed to attend the last rites.
The detention followed Dipke’s remarks at an interaction organised by Loksatta in Mumbai a day earlier, where he described the personal cost of the party’s agitation. He said both his parents had previously been hospitalised during a Jantar Mantar protest and that he had stayed away because he feared his absence would be portrayed as abandoning the demonstration.
The immediate developments remain whether Delhi Police will disclose the legal basis for the detention and whether Dipke will be allowed to travel to Hingoli for the funeral. The planned protest at Jantar Mantar and the CJP’s demands over electoral-roll revisions are also expected to remain at the centre of the dispute.
