Delhi police reach Dipke's residence, restricted from leaving home

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was restricted from leaving his place of stay in Delhi on Friday after police personnel visited his residence, hours before the outfit’s proposed ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march at Central Park in Connaught Place at 5 pm, The Tribune reported.

Dipke said seven to eight Delhi Police personnel arrived at his residence and accused him of engaging in an “unlawful activity” and “provoking people” by carrying the national flag.

Questioning the action, Dipke asked the police personnel, “Is all this just to restrict me from raising our national flag? Is it a crime?”

According to The Tribune report he also questioned a notice presented by the police, saying it referred to his intention to go to Jantar Mantar.

“Are they stopping us from carrying our own Tricolour in our own country? We cannot even wave our Tricolour in our own country,” Dipke said, alleging that the authorities were preventing him from exercising his right to carry the national flag.

The police also asked Dipke to sign some papers, which he initially refused to do. He later agreed to sign them after adding a note of his own, he said.

The police action came hours before the CJP’s proposed march, which called on supporters to gather at Central Park with the Tricolour amid the ongoing agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

On Thursday night, Dipke sought to distance the organisation from the “regime change” narrative surrounding the agitation, saying the CJP was not seeking a change of government but the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner.

“We are not saying we want to change the government… we are simply saying that the Election Commissioner who is rigging elections... should be removed and a new Election Commissioner should be appointed in an independent and unbiased manner. We believe in Gandhi ji,” he had said at a press conference.

While speaking to the police personnel on Friday, Dipke also urged them to focus on women’s safety in the national capital, saying women were “really unsafe” in Delhi.