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Delhi cops release clip of Dipke denying offer to return home over grandmother's death
Abhijeet Dipke was asked multiple times if he wishes to speak to his parents but he denied the offer, police said.
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Delhi Police on Sunday released a video showing Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke declining an offer to return home after being informed of his grandmother’s death.
Officials said that Dipke was offered all possible assistance, including help with flights and phone calls. He was asked multiple times if he wishes to speak to his parents but he denied the offer.
“As soon as the Delhi Police received information about the passing away of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Founder Abhijeet Dipke's grandmother, officers approached him to convey this sad news and offered all possible assistance. They sensitively asked if he needed help with flights, phone calls, or anything else. They repeatedly asked if he wished to speak to his parents, but he declined,” DCP Neha Yadav said.
Deep Dive
The video was released after Delhi Police earlier on Sunday clarified that the news of Dipke’s grandmother’s death had been “promptly conveyed to him with due sensitivity”.
“He was also informed of the scheduled funeral time and offered all possible assistance to facilitate his travel to his hometown on humanitarian grounds. However, he declined the offer,” the police said in a post on X.
However, addressing the media on Sunday, CJP co-convenors Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das doubled down on the earlier claim that Dipke, who was in detention at the time, had been denied permission by Delhi Police to speak to his cousin.
Ranka also accused the authorities of insensitivity in the manner in which Dipke was informed about his grandmother’s death.
Dipke released, flies back home
The CJP founder left for his village in Maharashtra on Sunday, hours after his release from detention. “Heading back to my village to be with my family during this moment of grief. Saurav and Ashu will address a press conference shortly in Delhi. The CJP will neither back down nor be intimidated. October 10 will go down as the beginning of the end of this dictatorship,” he wrote on X.
Dipke shared a photo of his grandmother on Instagram alongside the caption, "I am sorry." This post comes after Savitribai Dipke, his paternal grandmother, died at the family's ancestral home in Santuk Pimpri village in Maharashtra on Saturday.
Protests, detention continues on day 2
Delhi Police on Sunday continued to detain protesters around Connaught Place as groups returned to renew their demonstrations against chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, even as the Supreme Court ordered that peaceful, unarmed protesters cannot be detained except through the “procedure established by law”.
About 100 protesters were packed into two buses and removed from the area. At least four journalists were also detained briefly at RK Ashram before being released. Several empty buses for transporting detained people were also spotted, as the crowd increased in the area.
