Founder of India’s Cockroach Janta Party Detained in Delhi Ahead of Planned Protest

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of India’s “cockroach” protest movement, was detained in Delhi on Friday ahead of a scheduled march in the capital’s central district.

The arrest comes after police issued warnings against the planned demonstration, deploying thousands of security personnel across Delhi to prevent the assembly.

Dipke leads the youth-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which is calling for the resignation of India’s election chief amid allegations of voter roll manipulation. The Election Commission has denied these claims.

The group had called on supporters to gather at a park in Connaught Place, a major commercial hub in Delhi, to wave the national flag.

Attendance was lower than at previous CJP rallies, though numbers appeared to be growing. BBC correspondents observed young protesters being detained and placed into a bus already carrying several female detainees; approximately 50 female police officers were aboard, significantly outnumbering the demonstrators.

Dipke had just exited his residence and was nearing his vehicle when BBC reporters witnessed police officers surround him and place him into a police car. Several CJP supporters attempted to block the vehicle’s departure.

Anish Gawande, the opposition politician hosting Dipke, questioned the rationale behind the detention. Authorities have not yet publicly disclosed the grounds for the arrest.

“Detaining a solitary individual walking with the national flag is somewhat absurd,” Gawande remarked.

This marks the second detention of Dipke in under a week. Last Saturday, police boarded his flight shortly after landing in Delhi and removed him before he could attend a scheduled demonstration.

Police barricades and mass detentions blocked thousands of demonstrators from reaching the venue. Dipke was released the next day, though fellow CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were subsequently sentenced to five days in jail for entering Jantar Mantar, a protest site recently declared off-limits by authorities.

The planned Friday march was intended, in part, to demonstrate solidarity with the two imprisoned leaders.

Dipke had anticipated the possibility of rearrest. In a video message on Thursday, he encouraged supporters unable to travel to Delhi to raise the Indian flag in their own communities.

“I may be jailed after this, but I am not concerned. The tricolour is my pride, and I will raise it,” he stated.

Earlier on Friday, police served Dipke with a notice warning him against holding the march without authorization.

Authorities also closed Central Park for two days, citing administrative reasons. Police offered to permit a small group to wave the national flag and sing the anthem at an alternative location.

The CJP adjusted its strategy, urging supporters to enter Connaught Place in groups of fewer than five, unfurl the flag, take a photograph, and depart.

“Waving the Tiranga is not a crime,” the group stated in a social media poster, using the Hindi term for India’s tricolour flag. The organization encouraged supporters to share their photos online.

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