Around 150 people were taken into custody by Delhi Police at a Tiranga rally near Connaught Place's Central Park on October 16, among them Abhijeet Dipke, an activist affiliated with the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). Gathered under the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' banner, attendees called for the Indian Tricolour to be raised while directing their grievances at the Election Commission over what they described as procedural irregularities within the institution.
Dipke was detained by authorities as he departed from the residence of Anish Gawande — a spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party-Socialist Communist Party — with an upcoming rally yet to take place. At the moment of his detention, an officer told him that he was being held under preventive detention measures. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 are currently active across the Connaught Place area.
Two formal notices carrying legal restrictions were handed to Dipke, with officers telling him he was being taken into custody. Under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), one of the orders placed a prohibition on his entry into Central Park, citing provisions governing public gatherings. A second case, originating from the South-West Delhi district court, pointed to an earlier intervention involving three individuals — Dipke, Ashutosh, and Saurav — who were apprehended at an airport and are said to have broken a twelve-month undertaking to keep the peace.
Protesters with ties to the All India Students Association (AISA) and affiliated Left parties were among those detained after converging near Mandi House to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from office.
Posting on X, one political figure contested the police action, asserting that Abhijeet Dipke had been taken into custody for carrying the Indian National Flag. The same post framed the arrests of young protesters as a government-led effort to silence an emerging generation of critics, with the term "undeclared emergency" deployed to characterise the current political environment as one where expressing opposition had drawn the attention of state authorities. That post also declared outright support for the detained group and described the three individuals — Abhijeet, Ashutosh, and Saurav — as embodying the values and ambitions held by young people across India.
Posting on X, AAP national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal described the situation as authoritarian, adding that the push for democratic rights and the freedom to dissent would press on. Questions were also raised over whether displaying the national flag constitutes any form of legal offence.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav characterised the day as a contest between single-colour and tricolour symbolism, while AAP's Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj raised objections to the scale of the security presence at the protest, questioning why citizens faced restrictions on displaying the national flag. In an interview with a television news outlet, Bharadwaj stated that a prohibition on displaying the national flag within the country's own borders struck him as deeply unreasonable, and also raised the question of the grounds on which displaying the banner had not been permitted.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Mahua Maji argued that a broader national mood had been pushing people toward street-level protest. At a separate gathering at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a voice from the floor contended that deploying 50,000 security personnel and closing Central Park amounted to a disproportionate response, though both characterisations reflect personal assessments rather than established fact.
Earlier that day, a notice under Section 163 of the BNSS was handed to Dipke by Delhi Police, with the force pointing to the Connaught Place area's coverage under that provision and to the absence of authorisation from the New Delhi Municipal Council for a Tiranga Yatra planned on October 17. Gatherings or marches held without the required permits would constitute a breach of applicable regulations, the notice made clear, with enforcement proceedings available as a consequence.
Authorities pointed out to Dipke that organising a march without a permit and drawing together a crowd carried a prohibition, and that any display of the national flag was required to comply with the requirements set out in the Flag Code. Officers pointed to Connaught Place's role as a densely trafficked retail and office district with restricted entry points, noting that the adjacent metro station — which handles roughly 200,000 commuters on an average day — could intensify pressure on the area, with knock-on effects for local traders and an elevated likelihood of gridlock or uncontrolled crowd movement.
Concerns about gridlock on nearby roads, the ability of ambulances and patients to reach hospitals, potential threats to public safety, and the proximity of Parliament, the Central Secretariat, and diplomatic enclaves were also put forward by authorities. That document also pointed to earlier gatherings organised by the CJP, citing claimed violations of permit terms alongside reports of violence and damage to property that arose after calls were made to march on Parliament.
Authorities indicated that breaches of the rules could attract consequences under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, along with other applicable statutes. Under Sections 29 through 33 of the Delhi Police Act, 1978, Dipke faced additional constraints — among them, a prohibition on staging public gatherings, carrying any form of weapon, or operating loudspeakers within the designated area.
In that filing, officers drew on a Supreme Court ruling handed down in the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. Union of India case to support their position, with the bench having noted that street gatherings carry an obligation to account for vehicular movement, community safety, and the maintenance of order.
Dipke pushed back on the notion that protests had harmed commercial activity, arguing that businesses operating in an environment of peaceful demonstration do not face economic damage as a result. The CJP's leader stated that ordinary residents bear the consequences when authorities order a full urban lockdown, cut off internet access, bar people from moving freely, and deploy a heavy security presence throughout the city. He also noted that the Cockroach Janta Party, from the time of its founding, has maintained a position of peaceful, non-violent action in the tradition of Gandhi, a stance the party says it has upheld without deviation.
Three successive electoral victories — in 2014, 2019, and again in 2024 — brought the BJP into government and kept it there across more than a decade of national polling.
Demonstrations held across Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bengaluru, and Nagpur proceeded without incident in each city where they took place. Dipke stated that an assault on a speaker in Jaipur did not prompt any act of retaliation, with the decision to hold back rooted in a stated personal commitment to non-violence. He expressed a preference for pursuing constitutionally protected rights — citing the document shaped under BR Ambedkar's guidance — over any turn toward physical force.
