CJP’s Abhijeet among 3 top leaders detained from inside aircraft
Online desk: In scenes rarely witnessed aboard a commercial flight, the Cockroach Janata Party’s Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Aushtosh Ranka were detained from inside an aircraft shortly after landing in Delhi, ahead of their proposed protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday.
A Delhi Police team, notably comprising mostly women cops, entered the Air India flight from Mumbai within minutes of touchdown and detained the trio as co-passengers looked on and shot videos. The extraordinary scenes, captured on multiple mobile phone cameras, showed a visibly agitated Dipke telling the officers that he “had come to get arrested”.
The CJP soon condemned the action, calling the detention authoritarian and a “blatant violation of freedom of movement”.
The CJP had called the demonstration to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the party strongly condemned the detention of Dipke, Das and Ranka. It alleged that the police had carried out a pre-planned interception to prevent its leaders from reaching the protest site and described the action as an attempt to cripple the leadership of the peaceful demonstration.
The CJP also accused the police of violating the leaders’ freedom of movement and demanded their immediate and unconditional release.
