‘Send male officers forward’: Dipke tells women cops aboard flight before detention

CJP Abhijeet Dipke was detained at Delhi airport just before the planned Jantar Mantar protest demanded to speak with male officers during the detention

NEW DELHI: “Please send the male officers forward, Male officer,” CJP Abhijeet Dipke repeatedly asked for male officers during his detention alongside CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka inside an aircraft at Delhi airport on Saturday ahead of the Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest.In a video of the incident, Dipke is seen challenging the police to arrest him, questioning the grounds for his detention and repeatedly asking male officers to come forward as women police personnel surrounded him. Slogans of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Inquilab Zindabad” were also raised inside the aircraft.The detention came amid heightened security across Delhi ahead of the CJP’s proposed protest on October 10. The party has demanded Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and called for the revision process to be scrapped.Meanwhile, security was tightened outside CJP convenor Abhijeet Dipke’s residence in Maharashtra ahead of the Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday, according to news agency PTI.CJP legal team head Ratna Singh was detained along with three other lawyers. She alleged that more than 25 police personnel had surrounded her car without disclosing the grounds for the action.YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained at his residence in Gurgaon ahead of the protest.Security was stepped up across the capital, with police and paramilitary personnel deployed at key locations, barricades erected and checkpoints strengthened ahead of the planned mobilisation.