Abhijeet Dipke heckled at Delhi airport after Jantar Mantar security breach

Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was confronted and heckled by travellers at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport as he returned to the national capital from his hometown.

As Dipke walked through the arrival concourse, members of the public shouted at him, with one calling him a "CIA agent" and another demanding to know: "Why are you ruining the country?"

The public backlash comes amid heightened scrutiny of the fringe outfit's tactics. A day earlier, Delhi authorities detained two party co-convenors, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, after they climbed over a perimeter gate to enter a restricted section of Jantar Mantar. The historic observatory precinct was previously denotified by authorities as a permitted protest zone to preserve order in the capital's central administrative belt.

Both Das and Ranka had previously signed a legal undertaking to keep the peace for twelve months. Despite that bond, the pair forced their way into the prohibited area to stage a demonstration directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the central government.

Following their arrest, a special executive magistrate court in Delhi ordered both men into five days of judicial custody for breaching public order rules.

Legal actions against party leadership

Dipke lashes out online

Following the court's decision to remand his associates, Dipke posted a video statement on X claiming that the pair knew they faced arrest before setting out with the national flag. In the recording, he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stifling dissent and challenged him to formally declare an Emergency.

"Under Narendra Modi, even hoisting the national flag has become a violation of the law in this country," Dipke claimed in the video, demanding that the government "impose an official Emergency and say openly that dissent will not be tolerated".

However, authorities in the capital have maintained that designated public spaces require strict adherence to municipal and security regulations, particularly around central institutions. The confrontation at the airport suggests that public patience with deliberate attempts to circumvent administrative rules and disrupt civic discipline is wearing increasingly thin.