Cockroach Janta Party Founder Released on Bail After Detention Over Planned March

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was released on conditional bail on Saturday after signing a ‘peace bond’, a day after Delhi Police detained him over his planned ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march at Connaught Place. Police had served Dipke a notice prohibiting him from holding the march on Friday, which he refused to comply with. Dipke was detained shortly after stepping out of the Karol Bagh residence of Anish Gawande, spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), at around 4.50 pm. Wearing a white T-shirt bearing a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, he questioned the police action and unfurled the national flag before personnel pushed him into a police van. The detention prompted concerns from CJP and the All India Students’ Association (AISA) over the whereabouts of their members. CJP had said on Friday that it had lost contact with Dipke after police took him to an undisclosed location and alleged that he was not being allowed to speak to lawyers. AISA, meanwhile, said its president, Neha Bora, had been traced to the RK Puram police station after her whereabouts remained uncertain for hours. In a post on X, AISA questioned why Bora was being held at a police station until midnight and when she would be released. CJP also wrote to the station house officer of Mandir Marg police station seeking information about Dipke’s whereabouts and the legal grounds for his detention. In the letter, CJP leader Rohan Deshpande said the organisation had received no information about Dipke’s location or the police facility where he was being held. He urged police to confirm his whereabouts, identify the legal provisions invoked and disclose the grounds communicated for his preventive detention.