New Delhi (Net): Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and Germany-based YouTuber Dhruv Rathee were detained on Saturday ahead of a planned protest in Delhi demanding the resignation of Election Commission of India chief over alleged voter-roll irregularities. A team of Delhi Police entered the plane in which CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke landed in Delhi on Saturday morning. Dipke went live on his instagram as cops entered the plane and detained him ahead of the planned protest at Jantar Mantar. Dipke posted the video showing Delhi Police team entering the flight as he alongwith other CJP members, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained from the flight itself.
Earlier in the morning, Dhruv Rathee was detained at his residence in Gurugram after he refused police requests not to travel to Delhi to attend a protest organised by the CJP, for which permission has not been granted, police said. Rathee, who recently travelled to India, was detained at his home in Kendriya Vihar society in Sector 56 of Gurugram, reports Hindustan Times.
A senior Gurugram police official said a Delhi Police team had visited Rathee’s residence and asked him not to go to the national capital to participate in the protest at Jantar Mantar.
The official said Gurugram police were informed about the situation by their Delhi counterparts, following which a team visited Rathee’s home and urged him to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to maintain peace.
‘However, we were forced to detain him after he turned down all the requests not to travel to Delhi. We would have preferred not to detain him in case Rathee had listened to the law enforcement agencies,’ the official said.
Gurugram police officials said police personnel had been deployed at Rathee’s residence and would remain there until further orders.
The CJP also confirmed Rathee’s detention in a post on X, accusing the government of attempting to suppress dissent.
‘The Dictator is TERRIFIED of young people who question its wrongdoings and refuse to stay silent!’ the organisation wrote.
In a separate statement shared on social media, the CJP condemned what it described as the Delhi Police’s ‘high-handed detention of Social Activist and Influencer Dhruv Rathee’.
‘The arrest is part of an aggressive, citywide government crackdown designed to silence democratic dissent regarding electoral roll irregularities. The CJP demands the immediate and unconditional release of Rathee and the hundreds of other citizens and student activists currently held in custody,’ the organisation said in a statement shared through its WhatsApp channel.
Rathee had recently posted a video on social media platforms, including X, calling on people to join the CJP’s protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Saturday.
Meanwhile, India deployed thousands of police in its capital and restricted transportation in and around Delhi ahead of mass demonstrations on Saturday demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief over alleged voter-roll irregularities, reports AFP.
The protests, called by the youth-led Cockroach Janata Party, are the culmination of weeks of opposition mobilisation following allegations of misconduct during a nationwide voter-roll revision.
Demonstrations erupted across the country after a newspaper investigation last month alleged misconduct by the Election Commission of India.
The ECI has rejected allegations of impropriety in the ‘special intensive revision’, saying it was intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters.
Opposition parties and critics say the exercise could disenfranchise voters to the benefit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Tens of thousands of police officers and paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the capital, with multiple layers of yellow metal barricades blocking roads leading to Jantar Mantar, the usual government-designated protest site.
Police have not authorised rallies at the site this weekend.
