Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained at Delhi airport on Saturday. Before his arrest, he had named Ajinkya Shinde, the party’s national organisation in-charge, as the man to lead its protest at Jantar Mantar.
Shinde will lead the protest until the three detained leaders are released. A senior Delhi Police official confirmed the detentions and said teams from the southwest district police had been deployed at Indira Gandhi International Airport. The party’s legal affairs head, Ratna Singh, was also detained earlier on Saturday.
Dipke, spokesperson Saurav Das and co-convener Ashutosh Ranka were taken into custody by Delhi Police moments after their flight from Mumbai landed in the capital. The three had travelled for a proposed demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. “After us, this movement will be led by Ajinkya. Please follow Ajinkya Shinde, he will be carrying forward Cockroach Janta Party after Ashutosh, Saurav, and me. Videos posted by the group showed police officers boarding the aircraft before passengers began to disembark.
The party said Dipke was later taken to an “undisclosed location”. “If you’re watching this video, that means Ashutosh, Saurav, and I have been arrested,” Dipke said. In a statement, the CJP “strongly condemned” the action as “authoritarian” and a “violation of freedom of movement”.
