Before clock struck 5, Dipke was in custody. What happened ahead of Tiranga yatra

After hours of police pressure and paperwork, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained within seconds of stepping out of his Delhi residence, hours before his planned 5 pm visit to Connaught Place's Central Park. Defying police orders citing prohibitory restrictions, Dipke questioned his detention, insisting he was neither protesting nor breaking any law, but merely carrying the Indian flag.

In Short

• Dipke was taken into custody before the clock struck five
• The detention occurred ahead of a scheduled Tiranga yatra event
• The report focuses on events leading up to Dipke's custody

It was a long day for both Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke and the Delhi Police, with hours of back-and-forth culminating in his detention just as he stepped out of his residence.

Police personnel had been stationed at his accommodation for hours, made him sign documents and told him he could not proceed to Connaught Place's Central Park at 5 pm because prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS were in force.

But Dipke was in no mood to back down. He stepped out of his residence, only for the police to stop him within seconds and tell him he was being detained. Dipke questioned the move, insisting he was breaking no law, staging no protest and was merely carrying the Indian flag.

The crowd around him, he pointed out, consisted of media personnel.

The police, however, were unmoved. Another officer soon stepped in to tell Dipke that he was being taken into preventive custody.

“You can’t go there,” a police officer told Dipke, who shot back, “Give me the name of another place where I can go.”
“We will provide you with a place later. You can't go to New Delhi. For now, you are being detained,” the officer replied.

“I have not broken any law. How can you detain me? What have I done? Tell me,” Dipke snapped, insisting that he was only going to Connaught Place’s inner circle to unfurl the national flag.

The financial heart of the national capital was already under heavy security, with multiple layers of barricades and police and paramilitary personnel forming a human chain around the area.

“How have I broken the law?” Dipke asked, pointing out that the crowd around him consisted of media personnel.

Another junior police officer then intervened, telling Dipke that preventive action was being taken against him before ushering him into a police car.

And just like that, Dipke was taken into custody minutes before the scheduled march, moments after stepping out of the house where he was staying and while speaking to the media.

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE DIPKE LEFT THE HOUSE

Shortly before Dipke stepped out of the residence, videos of him sitting inside with police personnel and signing documents circulated online. With the national flag wrapped around him, he could be heard telling a police officer, “Please do not leak my phone number this time around.”

Dipke also told the police that he had no intention of creating a law-and-order situation and only wanted to carry the national flag to Connaught Place. The site is a stone’s throw from Jantar Mantar, which was denotified as a protest site days ago. It was from Jantar Mantar that Dipke had launched his protest against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, which led to the minister’s resignation in June.

Visuals from inside Dipke's accommodation earlier in the day showed around a dozen Delhi Police personnel, including several women officers, arriving at his residence in Central Delhi.

Dressed in a white T-shirt bearing an image of Mahatma Gandhi, Dipke was seen sitting with the Tricolour draped around his shoulders, in what appeared to be a form of silent protest. A police officer was seated beside him.

Dipke was also seen arguing with the officer, insisting that he had never called for a protest. "We are not going to hold a protest. There won't be any loudspeakers. We will only unfurl the Tricolour. Is that also not allowed?" he asked.

- Ends