Delhi Police lodge 3 FIRs over CJP's Tiranga march; Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora released

Delhi Police on Saturday lodged at least three FIRs over Friday’s Tiranga march, naming Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, All India Students’ Association (AISA) president Neha Bora and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders among others, and released Dipke after nearly 24 hours in custody and a bond to keep the peace for a year, as protesters gathered outside police headquarters demanded cases against officers they accused of assaulting them.

The FIRs, filed at Connaught Place and Mandi House under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for disobeying a lawful order, accuse protesters of defying prohibitory orders, marching in the middle of roads and obstructing police. Police had already taken down the names, addresses and phone numbers of those detained on Friday, and on Friday evening, made some of them sign notices to join the investigation, HT has learnt.

The notice, issued under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) for cases in which police choose not to arrest, cites FIR 294/26, registered at Connaught Place police station on October 16 under Section 223(a) read with Section 3(5), the BNS provision on acts done with common intention.

“Although you are not being placed under arrest at this stage in respect of the aforesaid FIR, you are directed to comply with all of the following conditions,” it says, binding the signatory not to commit any offence, tamper with evidence or threaten anyone acquainted with the case, and to appear in court when directed.

More FIRs were being filed, police said, and footage from CCTV cameras and social media was being used to identify those who marched on the inner circle of Connaught Place.

Dipke was released at around 4.45pm on Saturday after being produced before a special executive magistrate at Mandir Marg police station, where proceedings scheduled for noon were delayed by almost five hours. Police said he had been arrested under Sections 126 and 170 of the BNSS, which provide for preventive action, and that his attempt to join the march breached the bond he signed on October 11, after he and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained aboard a flight at Delhi airport.

Also Read | Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora among 150 detained in Delhi; Oppn slams police action amid anti-CEC protests

Police had picked Dipke up outside a friend’s house in Jhandewalan around 4.40pm on Friday, after serving him a notice barring him from the march. “I am alone. Why are you stopping me?” he asked, unfurling the tricolour before he was pushed into a van, and the CJP alleged he was moved between several police stations in Dwarka and southwest Delhi, denied his phone and kept from a lawyer.

Bora was released at 6am after about 12 hours at RK Puram police station, detained under Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act, a senior officer said. AISA alleged that police dragged, shoved and beat Bora and her associates at Mandi House and kept her lawyer away through the night, which police refused to comment on. “By what law is it permissible to keep detainees all night long?” Bora asked.

Police are also seeking a woman who, in a nine-second video they released, is seen slapping a woman paramilitary officer during a scuffle near Palika Bazaar, and said they would act against protesters who jumped barricades on Sansad Marg and against AAP, whose leaders Sanjay Singh and Saurabh Bhardwaj led a march near Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.