Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Founder Abhijeet Dipke has been arrested, following his detention on Friday when he stepped out to participate in a rally he had called in New Delhi, media reports said.
Dipke was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace and will be taken before a Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) court later today, news agencies ANI and PTI reported.
CJP legal affairs head Ratna Singh also said that Dipke had been arrested, adding that he would appear before the SEM court in central Delhi’s Mandir Marg at 12 p.m. (630 UTC).
Singh claimed that Dipke’s lawyers had not met him.
The ‘Cockroach’ movement said early on Saturday that they did not know where their founder had been detained, calling his detention a “kidnapping.”
“Until now, neither his parents nor his lawyers and not the CJP team have been given any updates about his location,” the CJP said on X, as it published a video of CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde asking about Dipke’s whereabouts.
Dipke was detained publicly on Friday as he left the house in Jhandewalan where he was staying to take part in CJP’s ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ (Wave the tricolor) protest rally in Connaught Place.
Videos of his detention showed the CJP founder being told by a police official that he was being placed under “preventive detention” before he was taken to a police car.
Dipke was seen displaying India’s flag as police and media personnel surrounded him. Some supporters were seen trying to block the police vehicle from driving away with Dipke.
Just hours earlier, a group of Delhi Police officials had visited the 31-year-old at the Jhandewalan residence and served him a notice barring the Friday protest.
The Delhi Police had previously reiterated that Section 163 of India’s criminal procedure law, which prohibits any form of assembly or protest, was in force in the Connaught Place area.
“The manner in which he was picked up from right outside his residence, no information about his whereabouts, and the fact that even his lawyers have been unable to meet him raise serious concerns about due process and fundamental rights,” Singh wrote on X.
Even after Dipke’s detention, hundreds of protesters turned up in Connaught Place defying the heavy security deployment. The protesters were seen waving the Indian national flag as part of the CJP’s ‘Tricolor’ rally. According to police, some 150 protesters were detained during the demonstrations.
The fresh protests came after CJP co-conveners Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were sent to a five-day detention in jail on Wednesday for alleged violation of prohibitory orders and breach of a peace bond after they attempted a demonstration. They too were carrying the Indian tricolor and the flag has since been at the center of CJP’s campaign.
The Indian flag “belongs to the 1.3 billion people of this country and not the Delhi police. We will wave it where we want!” the movement has said.
Dipke, Das and Ranka were earlier detained on October 10 from a plane as they arrived in the capital for a protest march calling for the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commionser Gyanesh Kumar over alleged manipulation of voter lists.
They were released after nearly 24 hours.
