Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday alleged he and his family were subjected to mental torture during his detention by Delhi Police, while asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would “denotify democracy itself” after the decision to denotify Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
Addressing reporters at his native village in Hingoli, Dipke claimed his kin and lawyer were kept in the dark about his whereabouts following his detention from an aircraft at Delhi airport on October 10.
Dipke, who arrived at Santuk Pimpri village in Hingoli late Sunday night following the death of his grandmother, hit out at the Delhi Police over his detention and treatment.
“They wanted to stress me out and give tension to my parents, who were already grieving my grandmother’s death. This was mental torture that my family and I faced due to Delhi Police,” he said.
Responding to Delhi Police’s claim, backed by a released video, that news of his grandmother’s passing was conveyed with due sensitivity and travel assistance was offered, Dipke accused the police of circulating an “edited video” to cover up their actions.
“If they told me about the death of my grandmother then why did they come with arrest papers to me at 3:30 am and asked me to sign? They asked me to talk to my parents, but I said they had health issues and asked to call my cousin who was with my grandmother. But they did not even allow me to retrieve his number from the phone,” Dipke alleged, demanding the release of the complete, unedited footage.
Reacting to the order by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar to denotify Jantar Mantar as a designated site for protests, Dipke warned “ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega” (the entire nation will turn into Jantar Mantar).
The reaction of Dipke came minutes after a standing order issued issued on October 11 by the Delhi Police Commissioner denotified Jantar Mantar as a protest site while Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground, and the CBD Ground in east Delhi were named as the new designated locations for demonstrations and protests.
“They have removed Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. Yes, it’s no longer a protest site as anyway it was turned into a war zone by the coward dictator. Ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega! (Now the entire country will turn into Jantar Mantar!),” Dipke said in a post on X.
Hitting out at the BJP-led central government, he said, “Today, Modi denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. Tomorrow, he will denotify democracy itself. The dictator’s problem was never the protest site. It was the very idea of people protesting,” the CJP founder asserted.
Earlier, while talking to reporters, he made it clear that he had not signed any police undertakings regarding non-violation of peace and maintained he would not sign anything without consulting his legal representative.
Reiterating his outfit’s resolve to continue agitating, Dipke questioned why the government was protecting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whose resignation the CJP and opposition parties have demanded over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
“Youth are being assaulted, journalists are being assaulted, even MPs are being assaulted by Delhi Police. What makes Gyanesh Kumar so indispensable to Modi that he is willing to wage war against everyone just to protect him?” Dipke asked on X.
In his post critical of the government, Dipke said “waging war against your own countrymen. You’re showing the country exactly what you are: a fascist dictator,” he said in another post tagging Modi’s X handle.
On his detention, Dipke said his family was not informed where he was being taken.
“Police didn’t even tell my lawyers where I was being held. And at 3:30 am, deliberately to cause further mental distress to my family, they asked me to inform them that I have been arrested and will be in jail for a long time.
“That is the kind of insensitivity the Delhi Police have shown. The video they released was edited and trimmed. They should show the full video, specially the part where I asked for my phone to speak to my brother and my lawyers, and also the where I was crying after they broke the news to me. They chopped that out and immediately cut to the part where the police officer hands me two water bottles to make them look good.
“But they didn’t show a young man crying over his grandmother’s death, because that wouldn’t have helped their image.
“The police said they will get me connected to my brother and asked me to give them the number. I told them I didn’t remember the number. They said, “Why don’t you remember the number?” I replied, “Who actually remembers phone numbers these days? Everyone saves numbers on their mobile phones these days. Who memorises numbers like in the old days?”
“They claimed, ‘We have the numbers memorised’. I told them, ‘You might, but we don’t’. I asked what is the problem with handing over the phone. I was asking for it for just two minutes. I told them that they can keep holding the phone in their hands and just let me open the phone to retrieve the number. They weren’t willing to do that,” Dipke said.
Commenting on the heavy deployment of women police personnel on Delhi streets during the crackdown, Dipke alleged it was a deliberate strategy to frame agitators if any untoward incident occurred, adding that protesters “know how to treat women with dignity.”
Following his interaction with the media, Dipke visited the site in his village where his grandmother’s final rites were performed.
