​CJP's Abhijeet Dipke misses grandma’s funeral; Delhi Police and family trade charges

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke’s family cremated his paternal grandmother, nearly 24 hours after her death, in Hingoli district on Sunday, before he could return home following his detention, and release, by Delhi Police.The death has triggered a bitter clash of narratives between Dipke’s family and Delhi Police over whether authorities informed him in time and facilitated his journey home.On Sunday morning, Abhijeet Dipke’s mother, Anita, accused Delhi Police of preventing the family from contacting her son and denied police claims that he had been adequately informed about his grandmother’s death.Delhi Police rejected the allegation. “The information regarding the demise of Dipke’s grandmother was promptly conveyed to him with due sensitivity. He was also informed of the scheduled funeral time and offered all possible assistance to facilitate his travel to his hometown on humanitarian grounds. However, he denied to avail the same,” Delhi Police said in a social media post.Police also released CCTV footage from the detention facility to support their version.Dipke, who reached Nagpur on Sunday afternoon while travelling to his native village in Hingoli district after his release, contested the police account. He alleged that officers refused to let him speak to his cousin, who lived with his grandmother, and denied him access to his phone.“I was asking for my phone so I could retrieve my cousin’s number. Delhi Police has deleted that portion of the CCTV footage,” he alleged. In a social media post, Dipke accused the police of showing little compassion during his detention.“The same Delhi Police which is now taking the moral high ground for informing me about my grandmother’s demise and offering me a ride home came to me at 3.30am with arrest papers and demanded that I sign them. Where did all that humanity go at 3.30am? Even after knowing I had lost my grandmother, they insisted that I sign the papers. I refused until I was allowed to speak to my lawyers,” he wrote.The dispute added a fresh political edge to an already tense standoff between Dipke and authorities. Emerging from detention, Dipke said the CJP would resume its protests and declared that he had not signed any undertaking promising to stay away from future agitations. “Put me in jail a hundred times. We are not afraid of your dictatorship. We will end this dictatorship,” he told reporters in Nagpur.Earlier, he had posted on social media that the party would neither “back down nor be intimidated”, describing Oct 10 as “the beginning of the end of this dictatorship.”Stay updated with the latest Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar news. Download the TOI App.