Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and two leaders detained on arrival at Delhi airport

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was detained by police on arrival in Delhi on Saturday, October 10. Party spokesperson Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained. The three had come to Delhi for a protest at Jantar Mantar and were taken away from the airport itself.

The CJP has called a protest on October 10. The issue is Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and what the party calls the corrupt functioning of the Election Commission. Dipke, Ranka, Das and some of their associates reached Delhi airport in the morning for the protest. Delhi Police personnel boarded the plane Dipke was on, which had landed at IGI Airport minutes earlier, and there was considerable drama inside the aircraft.

Police asked Dipke to accompany them. He replied angrily, "I have come here only to get arrested, arrest me." Police said, "No, this is not an arrest. Please cooperate." Police then took the three off the plane and put them on a bus. The CJP has protested against the arrests. The party says police detained them after they reached Delhi on Saturday.

According to sources, there was an argument between Dipke and the police officers. Dipke objected to the presence of women police officers on the plane. A woman police officer had come to detain him. On seeing her, Dipke stood up and folded his hands. He then said, "Let's go, I have come only to get arrested." Slogans of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Inquilab Zindabad" then rang out.

A video from the plane has also surfaced. In it, Dipke is seen questioning the presence of women police officers. He asks, "How did you come onto the plane? Send your male officers ahead." The woman officer was meanwhile urging him, saying "Please come." At that moment Ashutosh Ranka asked, "Why are women police officers coming? Send your male officers." Dipke replied, "Look, I have come to get arrested. Let me take my bag. Which jail are you going to put me in?"

A Delhi Police team then took him into custody and to a detention centre. According to sources, the three were taken away from the airport, and police shielded them from media cameras on the way to the detention centre. The three were taken to different places. They will remain in the detention centre, but have been moved to a remote location.

The CJP, or Cockroach Janta Party, has called the action a violation of its freedom of movement and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the three leaders. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is accused of manipulating electoral rolls in the name of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and of ignoring the objections of two fellow Election Commissioners to changes in the voter registration document known as "Form 6".