New Delhi, October 10, 2026: Founders and key leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) were taken into custody from inside a flight at Delhi airport on Saturday, hours before the party’s planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and a halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Abhijeet Dipke, along with co-convenors Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, was detained by police after their flight from Mumbai landed at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport. Live updates and footage circulating from the scene showed police entering the aircraft. Dipke was reported to have told officers that any discussion could have waited until after they deplaned.
Earlier the same morning, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained from his residence in Sector 56, Gurugram. CJP’s legal affairs head Ratna Singh was also taken into custody. In a video shared by the party, Singh said police arrived at her home citing “orders from above,” instructed her to stay put, and surrounded the car in which she and two other women were seated.
Authorities also detained around 600 CJP supporters and others from various locations across the capital and nearby areas as part of preventive action. Delhi Police had denied permission for the gathering, citing the timing of the application and law-and-order concerns, and imposed prohibitory orders.
Heavy security deployment
More than 38,000 security personnel were deployed across the city. Spikes were placed on roads to restrict vehicle movement, 45 metro stations were closed, and around 250 mail/express trains bound for New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin were cancelled. Internet services were suspended in a roughly 4 km radius around India Gate from 10 pm Friday until 10 pm Saturday.
The CJP, a youth-led outfit founded by Abhijeet Dipke with co-convenors including Ashutosh Ranka (IIT Kanpur and LSE alumnus) and journalist Saurav Das, has been organising protests over alleged irregularities in the SIR process. The party has accused the government of suppressing dissent and claimed that large numbers of its volunteers were detained in multiple states in the days leading up to the Delhi march.
Delhi remains under high alert as the planned Jantar Mantar demonstration unfolds against a backdrop of extensive restrictions on movement and assembly.
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