Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke and senior party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka are scheduled to be produced before an Executive Magistrate at the Delhi Cantonment Police Station on Sunday morning. The development follows their high-profile detention by the Delhi Police inside a commercial aircraft upon landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mumbai on October 10.
The three leaders were taken into custody ahead of a planned march at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral roll discrepancies. Video footage circulating on social media showed police personnel boarding the flight to execute the detention.
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In the recording, Dipke could be heard saying, "You can see that Delhi Police is entering the plane to arrest us. They are all entering the plane. We just landed... Come on, arrest us. We are here to be arrested." Police officials on scene replied, "No, this is not an arrest. Please cooperate."
The legal head of the CJP today morning said that a police officer informed of the scheduled presentation before the magistrate, where legal representatives from the party will be present. The party had previously expressed serious concerns regarding the undisclosed whereabouts of the detained leaders after they were escorted off the aircraft.
Addressing the detention, the Delhi Police said that the leaders were taken into custody because permission had not been granted for the proposed demonstration in the national capital. Officials added that during his period in detention, Dipke was informed with sensitivity about the death of his grandmother and was offered travel facilitation to his hometown on humanitarian grounds.
Supreme Court special hearing today
The Supreme Court will hold a special hearing today (October 11) to consider a contempt petition accusing key authorities of wilful disobedience regarding its October 9 directive against a complete shutdown of metro and train services in the national capital.
A bench comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana will hear the matter at 10:30 AM, according to the official cause list uploaded on the apex court's website. The petition seeks initiation of contempt proceedings for allegedly violating judicial instructions that explicitly prohibited a total ban on public transport operations during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests.
According to reports nearly 3,000 were detained across various points in Delhi, including Jantar Mantar and near Delhi airport. Prominent CJP supporter and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was also detained ahead of the planned march, while co-founder Ajinkya Shinde stepped forward to lead the party's continued mobilisation. Rathee has been released today morning and warned of going towards Jantar Mantar.