He saw it coming. Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke knew what awaited him in Delhi. With the top CJP leadership under detention, Dipke has handed over the responsibility of taking the CJP movement forward to Ajinkya Shinde. The Organisation In-Charge of CJP will lead the protest until other leaders are freed, Dipke announced in a pre-recorded video on Saturday.
Soon after Dipke’s detention from the flight, the video was posted on the CJP’s X handle with Dipke handing over the baton to Shinde in the absence of the top leadership.
“If you are watching this video, it means that I, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have been arrested. In our absence, Ajinkya will lead the protest and the CJP movement. Please follow him,” Dipke said in the video.
IMPORTANT Until Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka are in detention, CJP’s Organization In-Charge Ajinkya Shinde will lead this protest at Jantar Mantar. Abhijeet had pre-recorded this video last night in anticipation of a potential arrest. @AjinkyaCJP https://t.co/WSQ69mKfTV
— Cockroach Janta Party – CJP (@Cockroachisback) October 10, 2026
Dipke and CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by Delhi Police personnel who entered their flight as it landed in the Capital from Mumbai to lead the protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Ajinkya Shinde from Maharashtra has been a close associate of Abhijeet Dipke for years. He previously served as a social media coordinator for the AAP Maharashtra team. He reportedly first met Dipke in Goa in 2016. Shinde had quit his corporate job to work full-time for the Aam Aadmi Party. After joining AAP, he dedicated a year to the Goa elections. Although the party failed to open its account in the Goa Assembly elections, Ajinkya remained committed to the party and began working with the AAP Maharashtra team. He has reportedly toured every district in Maharashtra. Ajinkya hails from Alibaug, a coastal town in the state.
Apart from Dipke, Das and Ranka, a number of CJP leaders and protesters have been detained since Saturday morning ahead of the CJP protest. Delhi Police had denied permission to the CJP for the protest, saying that permission was not sought well in advance.
Earlier on Saturday morning, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was also detained from his house in Gurugram by Delhi Police. Rathee, a known critic of the Narendra Modi government, had arrived in India from Germany earlier this week and had joined the CJP protest in Bengaluru on October 8.
Dramatic scenes played out around Jantar Mantar as police personnel rounded up protesters who tried to reach the protest site.
The detained protesters were bundled into police buses and taken to Chhatrasal Stadium in the Capital.
Police also arrested at least 400 protesters in an overnight crackdown in different parts of the Capital.
