In the early hours of 10 October 2026, the small settlement of Santuk Pimpri in Hingoli district, Maharashtra, received word that Savitribai Deepke had died at the age of 85. She had been suffering from a long illness, and her passing was felt deeply by the relatives who had gathered around her. As the matriarch of a family that had become known for its political activism, her death carried a weight beyond the personal grief.
Later that same day, Abhijeet Dipke, identified in reports as the founder of the Communist Janata Party (also referred to as the Cockroach Janata Party), boarded a flight from Mumbai bound for Delhi. He had told associates that he intended to join a demonstration against the Chief Election Commissioner, J.K. Sinha, and to lead a rally dubbed "Jantar Mantar 2.0" that would challenge the alleged deletion of voter names by election official Dnyaneshwar Kumar. The trip was meant to be a show of strength for the party he had helped establish.
The grandmother of Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke died at the age of 85 in the family’s native village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district on Saturday, as he remained in detention after being picked up by the Delhi Police on arrival in the capital for a planned protest. Read more: https://t.co/a6BCa7FSVl
Upon landing at the Delhi airport, Abhijeet Dipke was not greeted by fellow activists but by Delhi Police officers who took him into custody. He was not alone; two of his close associates, Sourav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were also detained at the same time. The police action came swiftly after his arrival, preventing him from reaching the protest site. The officers did not disclose at that moment whether they had informed him of his grandmother’s death, and it remains unclear if Abhijeet Deepke has been informed of the death while in custody, though police may arrange travel to Sambhajinagar once notified.
While he remained in police custody, the Cockroach Janata Party announced that Ajinkya Shinde has assumed temporary leadership of the protest movement.
The demonstration Abhijeet Dipke had planned never materialized as he had envisioned. While he remained in police custody, the Cockroach Janata Party announced that Ajinkya Shinde has assumed temporary leadership of the protest movement. The party’s core grievance remained the claim that Dnyaneshwar Kumar had been deleting names from the electoral rolls, a charge that had fueled the call for the Jantar Mantar 2.0 gathering. With its founder detained, the party scrambled to keep the pressure on the election authorities.
Back in Maharashtra, the focus shifted to Abhijeet Dipke’s immediate family. His parents, Bhagwan Deepke and Anita, were placed under strict police protection in Sambhajinagar. They were expected to travel to Hingoli to attend the funeral rites for Savitribai Deepke. In a brief statement, Bhagwan and Anita said, "We have dedicated our son to the country," expressing a mix of pride and resignation about their son’s political path.
Despite the detention of its founder, the Cockroach Janata Party sought to maintain momentum. Following Dipke’s detention, Ajinkya Shinde has reportedly taken charge of the protest movement, and the party continues to protest the alleged deletion of voter names. The party’s core grievance remained the claim that Dnyaneshwar Kumar had been deleting names from the electoral rolls, a charge that had fueled the call for the Jantar Mantar 2.0 gathering.
Who is Ajinkya Shinde, the new face of CJP’s Jantar Mantar protest after Abhijeet Dipke’s detention? A former social media coordinator for AAP’s Maharashtra team, Shinde reportedly first met Dipke in Goa in 2016. https://t.co/YHmDJpzlLt
As of the day’s end, the facts remained stark: Savitribai Deepke had passed away at 85 in her village; Abhijeet Dipke and two associates were in Delhi Police custody; his parents were under protection in Sambhajinagar; and the Cockroach Janata Party was attempting to sustain a protest against alleged voter‑roll deletions while awaiting news of their leader’s situation. The intertwining of personal loss and political confrontation left the family and their movement at a crossroads, with the next steps uncertain but the resolve to continue evident in the words of the grieving parents.
