Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have been detained upon their arrival in Delhi, amid a sweeping security crackdown ahead of the party’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday.
Delhi Police detain around 500 people
Delhi Police personnel boarded the aircraft carrying Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke after it landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. “This is not an arrest. Please cooperate,” the officers responded. CJP leaders were travelling from Mumbai to Delhi to participate in the protest. In a video on Instagram Dipke alleged that police personnel were attempting to detain him and his associates as they disembarked from their aircraft at Delhi Airport. “So, you can see that Delhi Police is entering the plane to arrest us. They are all entering the plane. We just landed. All the Delhi Police officers are standing in the aisle. They are trying to arrest us from inside the plane. The entire Delhi Police is getting on the plane… This is the fear of Narendra Modi… Not even Indira Gandhi did this during the Emergency.
Delhi Police said on Saturday that around 500 people who arrived in separate groups from different locations had been detained ahead of the protest. Nearly 50 people with criminal antecedents were also apprehended as part of preventive measures, officials said. The measures have been introduced to prevent any untoward incident during the demonstration, with police seeking to avoid a recurrence of the July 20 protests.
“I have come here to be arrested; arrest me,” Dipke told the police personnel. All we wanted to do is a peaceful protest, and they are picking us up from the flight like we are criminals,” Dipke said.
