CJP founder produced in court amid tight security (Img: Dynamite News)
New Delhi: Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was produced before the Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) Court in Delhi on Friday amid heavy security outside Mandir Marg police station.
Delhi Police detained Dipke while he was on his way to participate in the ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ yatra. Police said he was arrested in a case related to breach of peace under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
Dipke and All India Students' Association (AISA) leader Neha Bora were taken into preventive custody ahead of the ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ protest march at Connaught Place on Friday.
Police said Bora was released after completing the formalities related to her detention under Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act. Dipke, however, was arrested in a separate case under Sections 126 and 170 of the BNSS for allegedly breaching the peace.
CJP co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were sent to five days of judicial custody on Wednesday after being produced before a special executive magistrate at Mandir Marg police station in Delhi.
Das, Ranka and 12 others were detained early on Tuesday, October 13, after they climbed a locked gate to enter Jantar Mantar, which had earlier been de-notified as a protest site.
While CJP national organisation in-charge Shinde and 11 others were released, Das and Ranka were remanded to judicial custody.
CJP legal head Ratna Singh urged the SEM Court to release Dipke, describing his arrest as unlawful.
“He merely urged people to unfurl the Tiranga - how can that by itself be a crime?” she said.
Singh raised concerns over Dipke’s detention outside his residence, the lack of information about his whereabouts and the alleged inability of his lawyers to meet him.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has announced a protest in London, seeking international attention to what he described as the reality of “vote chor and murderer of democracy”.
In a post on X, Rathee said he had arrived in London and called on people to join the protest outside the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square at noon on Saturday.
“International danka bajane ka time aa gaya hai,” he wrote, ending his post with “Jai Hind”.
Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi criticised the Opposition over the anti-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) protests, alleging that its actions were aimed at turning India into Bangladesh.
In a post on X, Joshi said the country’s progress under Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not be undermined by foreign-inspired “regime change” efforts or engineered chaos.
He added that those unable to secure the people’s mandate would not be allowed to destabilise the country’s sovereignty.
