On a day already dominated by detentions and protest plans, a quieter and sadder piece of news reached the Cockroach Janta Party’s founder. Abhijeet Dipke’s grandmother has died, and she passed away while he was in police custody in Delhi, hundreds of kilometres from her village in Maharashtra.

What we know about her death

Savitribai Dipke, his paternal grandmother and the mother of his father Bhagwan Dipke, died on Saturday at the age of 85. According to reports, she died at about 11:30 am at her home in Santuk Pimpri village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district. She had been unwell for several days, with a prolonged illness and age-related health problems.

How Dipke heard the news

The news came only hours after Dipke was detained. He, along with fellow CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, had been taken into custody by Delhi Police on board their flight from Mumbai, shortly after it landed at Delhi airport, ahead of the party’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Delhi Police informed Dipke about his grandmother’s death while he was still in detention. According to police sources, he was told he had a choice: stay in Delhi, or return to Maharashtra for her last rites. His cousin said the family had struggled to reach him at first, because he was in detention.

A recent meeting

Family members say Dipke had last met his grandmother on 15 August, when he launched the CJP’s “School Thik Karo” campaign from Hingoli district, and that they met once more after that. It is a small detail, but it says something about how close the family is to the movement he has built.

What has not been confirmed

Several things are still unclear. None of the reports we reviewed say what Dipke decided to do, whether he has been released, or where he is being held. The CJP had earlier said that the three leaders had been taken to an undisclosed location. Delhi Police has not, in anything we have seen, given an official statement of its own on the matter.

The protest carries on without him.

Following the detention of its top leaders, the CJP named Ajinkya Shinde, the organisation’s in-charge, to lead the demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The party has said its campaign will continue with or without its leaders. For more on the day’s events, see our report on the Jantar Mantar protest and the detentions of Mamata Banerjee and other leaders.

What happens next

The family is preparing for the last rites in Hingoli. The question now is whether Dipke will be able to join them, and what his next step will be.

© Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Vygr Media.