Dipke walks free on a peace bond as Neha Bora asks 'by what law' she was held overnight

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was released on Saturday afternoon after a Special Executive Magistrate granted him conditional bail on a peace bond, about 24 hours after Delhi Police stopped him from leaving for the “Lehra Do Tiranga” protest at Connaught Place.

He was produced before the magistrate at Mandir Marg. Police said they had moved against him under Sections 126 and 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. The first lets an executive magistrate act where a breach of the peace is likely; the second lets the police make a preventive arrest without a warrant. One condition requires him to keep the peace for a year. The full terms will be known when the written order is out.

“Abhijeet Dipke released,” Ratna Singh, who heads the CJP’s legal affairs, wrote on X.

A long wait for lawyers

The day began with the party saying it did not know where he was. “Abhijeet is arrested & will be produced before SEM court. His location still unknown, lawyers haven’t met,” Singh posted in the morning. CJP organiser Ajinkya Shinde said more than eight hours had passed without the party being told where Dipke was being held or on what grounds.

The hearing itself ran late. “It was supposed to happen at 12 p.m. It’s 3:38 p.m. and no sign of it,” Singh wrote. Several lawyers were stopped by security outside the magistrate’s court while it was under way. Singh had argued that the arrest was unlawful and that asking people to unfurl the Tricolour cannot by itself be a crime. “The SEM Court should release Abhijeet Dipke, as his arrest is unlawful,” she wrote.

It is the second time in a week that Dipke has been bound down. After his detention at Delhi airport on 10 October he was released on a bond to keep the peace for a year, and police had served him a reminder of that undertaking on Friday before he was picked up at Jhandewalan.

“By what law?”

AISA president Neha Bora, detained near Mandi House on Friday evening, was released early on Saturday after police completed formalities under Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act. Her lawyer, Supantha Sinha, said she was held at about 5 pm but her lawyers learnt where she was only around 10:30 pm. AISA later said lawyers had met her at RK Puram police station. Sinha said police stayed in the room and did not allow a private consultation. CPI leader Annie Raja went to Parliament Street police station with lawyers looking for her.

“Under what authority is this justified? By what law or order is it permissible to keep detainees held in custody all night long?” Bora said after her release. “Ordinary citizens are treated as if they were hardened criminals, a practice that has persisted in this country for a long time.”

She demanded the release of everyone held and an end to the curbs in central Delhi, and repeated the protest’s two demands: “Impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR.”

FIRs and a warning

Delhi Police have registered several FIRs over alleged violations of the prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS that were in force around Connaught Place on Friday, when about 150 people were detained. Officers said carrying the national flag was never banned, but gathering a crowd or taking out a procession without permission in the restricted area was, and they warned that repeat offenders would face further action.

CJP co-conveners Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka remain in Tihar Jail on the five days of judicial custody ordered on 14 October over their entry into Jantar Mantar.