'Send male officers forward’: Dipke tells women cops aboard flight before detention

CJP Abhijeet Dipke was detained at Delhi airport just before the planned Jantar Mantar protest demanded to speak with male officers during the detention

NEW DELHI: “Please send the male officers forward, male officer,” Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke repeatedly told women police personnel during his detention inside an aircraft at Delhi airport on Saturday.Dipke was detained alongside CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka ahead of the party’s proposed ‘Jantar Mantar 2.0’ protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.In a video of the incident, Dipke is seen challenging the police to arrest him and questioning the grounds for his detention. As women police personnel surrounded him, he repeatedly asked male officers to come forward.Slogans of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Inquilab Zindabad” were also raised inside the aircraft.The detention came ahead of the CJP’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar, where the party had called for action against the Election Commission over its concerns about the electoral process.

Meanwhile, security was tightened outside CJP convenor Abhijeet Dipke’s residence in Maharashtra ahead of the Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday, according to news agency PTI.

CJP legal team head Ratna Singh was detained along with three other lawyers. She alleged that more than 25 police personnel had surrounded her car without disclosing the grounds for the action.YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was also detained at his residence in Gurgaon ahead of the protest.Security was stepped up across the capital, with police and paramilitary personnel deployed at key locations, barricades erected and checkpoints strengthened ahead of the planned mobilisation.