CJP leaders Dipke, Das and Ranka released 22 hours after airport detention; actor Imran Khan held in Mumbai

Three leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were released on the morning of 11 October, roughly 22 hours after Delhi Police detained them off a flight on Saturday, WION reported. In Mumbai, a solidarity protest the same day led to the brief detention of actor Imran Khan and his partner, actor Lekha Washington.

CJP leaders freed in Delhi

Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained at Delhi airport on 10 October after their flight landed. They had come to lead the “Jantar Mantar 2.0” protest, which demands the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Police placed them under preventive arrest. WION reported they were produced before an executive magistrate at Delhi Cantt Police Station and released at about 9 AM on 11 October. It cited Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which allow action without a warrant to keep the peace. CJP legal team head Ratna Singh confirmed the release; she had also been detained on 10 October and later freed. The reports did not mention any release conditions.

Delhi Police had denied permission for the protest, citing law-and-order concerns, public safety and possible disruption to residents, according to Gujarat Samachar.

Other detainees and the numbers

• YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained from his Gurugram home on 10 October and released early on 11 October by Gurugram Police (WION). The Tribune carried a headline saying he was freed at 3 am.
• Reported detainees in Delhi included former chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar, and AISA president Neha Bora (WION).
• Counts differ: WION reported about 3,000 detained in Delhi, while DT Next, citing police action, said over 7,000.
• Press Club of India and other journalist bodies condemned the detention of reporters despite press cards, saying some phones and equipment were seized (PTI via The Tribune).

Mumbai protest

At August Kranti Maidan, Mumbai Police detained protesters gathered in solidarity with the Delhi demonstration. Police said no permission had been sought and that the Bombay High Court allows protests only at Azad Maidan, as reported by The Indian Express via The Quint. CJP workers said they had emailed police for permission and got no reply.

Khan and Washington were detained and released a short while later. Khan told media he was there “as a citizen, as a person who lives in this city.” Washington said in a video from the police vehicle: “Folks, we have been detained. We are all in a cop car.” Activist Tushar Gandhi was released about nine hours after his detention, DT Next reported.

Mumbai detention figures also varied: more than 400 in one account, about 600 in another.

What next

The CJP announced a 10 AM protest at Jantar Mantar on Sunday, with over 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel to be deployed in Delhi, PTI reported. CJP national organisation in-charge Ajinkya Shinde said: “As many people as you detain, we will not go back” until the Chief Election Commissioner resigns.

Sources: WION, DT Next, The Quint, Telangana Today, The Tribune, Gujarat Samachar.