CJP protest: Police enter aircraft, detain Dipke, Saurva and Ranka

Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were taken away separately after the aircraft was moved to a remote bay at Delhi airport.

Delhi Police officers boarded an Air India flight from Mumbai at Delhi airport on Saturday morning and detained Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijit Dipke and co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in their seats.

The three CJP leaders were seated in 7A, 7B and 7C when police officers boarded the aircraft and detained them. (PTI)

Flight AI 2428 landed at 10.18am and was moved to remote bay R12 after the airport’s Airside Operations Control Centre asked air traffic control to park it there, people aware of the matter said. Airport officials said the bay was changed at the last moment, with police and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel waiting there before the aircraft arrived.

Officers, including women personnel, detained the three in seats 7A, 7B and 7C, after a woman sub-inspector told Dipke the CJP’s permission to protest had been denied. “We are here to be arrested, come and arrest us,” Dipke can be heard telling them in a video shared by the CJP. He said the police could have detained them outside the plane, that they were being treated like criminals, and that even former prime minister Indira Gandhi had not done this — an allusion to the infamous Emergency declared by the then PM in 1975.

The three were the first off the aircraft and were escorted out through cargo gate number 6. “This was done to ensure the safety of the three leaders and prevent inconvenience to other passengers,” an airport official said, asking not to be named. Police later took them separately to locations including Najafgarh and Gurugram, and declined to say where they were held, citing security. They had not been released by late Saturday night, and CJP legal head Ratna Singh said no one had been able to reach them all day.

Former police and CISF officers said police can legally board a parked aircraft after coordinating with the pilot in command. “An aircraft is considered in flight from the time doors are closed before take off to doors are opened after being parked, during which the PIC is the ultimate power,” an airline official said. Once the doors are open, any security agency can enter for serious issues, the official said.

A former CISF officer said police must inform the airline, which tells the captain. “It is the pilot who opens the door from inside and allows them to enter,” the officer said.

The CJP called it a “pre-planned interception” meant “to cripple the leadership of today’s peaceful demonstrations before they even reach the protest site”.