Delhi Police said it is planning to block all entries to Central Park in Connaught Place ahead of the proposed ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ rally by Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, while allowing traffic and pedestrian movement in the inner and outer circles of CP.
A police team has also visited Dipke's place of stay — NCP-SP spokesperson Anish Gawande's residence — to verbally inform him about prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), in force in the New Delhi area, and urge him to call off the march and maintain peace and law and order. Track LIVE updates from Abhijeet Dipke's Tiranga march here
The police team left the house after serving a notice to Dipke and getting the acknowledgement, a police officer said.
CJP livestreamed the tense exchange between Dipke and Delhi Police personnel, in which the former can be heard asking an officer how unfolding the Tricolour is unlawful.
"We are not putting any speaker, we have not said it is a protest, we are just saying we will unfold the Tricolour, is that now allowed?" Dipke could be seen asking the officer.
{{/usCountry}}"We are not putting any speaker, we have not said it is a protest, we are just saying we will unfold the Tricolour, is that now allowed?" Dipke could be seen asking the officer.
{{/usCountry}}Citing the communication in the notice, Dipke further asked, "Is Tiranga unlawful?", and got "it is country's pride" as a response from the officer.
‘Lehra Do Tiranga’
Abhijeet Dipke proposed “Lehra Do Tiranga” protest march to CP's Central Park on Wednesday amid the standoff with authorities over the arrest of two spokespersons of CJP - Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka - for Jantar Mantar trespass.
Saurav Das and its Ashutosh Ranka were detained by the Delhi Police on Tuesday morning after entering Jantar Mantar by jumping the locked gates, a day after the site lost its designated protest venue status.
Das and Ranka were sent to five-day judicial custody on Wednesday, after which Dipke, who landed in Delhi from Maharashtra that day, announced the plan to march to Central Park in protest over the allegations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and also as a symbolic stand against denotification of the iconic Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
Delhi Police had planned to deploy more than 6,000 personnel in and around Connaught Place and central Delhi on Friday, ahead of the proposed “Lehra Do Tiranga” protest, even as officials said that a “select few people” could be allowed to conduct a march at a “suitable place”.
The local police deployment is in addition to around 26,000 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) stationed in the Capital over the past week following the CJP’s call for protests demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Together, around 32,000 security personnel were expected to be deployed across central Delhi on Friday, an earlier HT report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.
During the October 10 protest, Delhi Police had deployed around 5,000 personnel in the New Delhi district, which includes Connaught Place, Rajiv Chowk, Central Park, nearby metro stations, Jantar Mantar and Palika Bazaar.