New Delhi : A day after an RTI activist sought an investigation into his family’s finances, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke said his higher education in the United States was financed through a scholarship from Boston University and an education loan, rejecting allegations that it was funded through unexplained family wealth. In an interview with senior journalist Barkha Dutt, Dipke said he had received a scholarship from Boston University and had also taken an education loan, which he is still repaying. To support his claim, he displayed his scholarship letter during the interview.
The clarification came after Surat-based RTI activist Amit Tiwari, on August 1, filed complaints with several authorities, including the Maharashtra government, seeking a probe into the finances of Dipke’s father, Bhagwanrao Dipke, a retired Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) junior engineer. Tiwari questioned how a government employee allegedly earning around Rs 60,000-65,000 per month could have financed higher education for his children in the United States.
Addressing concerns about the CJP’s future funding model, Dipke said the party would rely on public crowdfunding while maintaining complete transparency. “The CJP will do crowdfunding going forward where we will be asking money from people, and we will be very transparent about it,” he said. Dipke claimed that the movement had received significant support from ordinary citizens. “The people who came to the protests saw that people were donating us food. The people brought their own water bottles,” he said.
“Some people from the Delhi Police came to us and said, ‘We will provide you with water bottles, but do not reveal our identities.’ They said some of their children were also preparing for NEET, and they were sympathetic towards the cause,” he claimed. The CJP’s finances have come under increased public scrutiny after senior advocate Kapil Sibal announced a Rs 1 crore legal aid fund for protesters arrested during the anti-NEET paper leak agitation.
The RTI activist has also approached the Election Commission of India, seeking scrutiny of the CJP’s legal status as well as the legal aid announced by Sibal. CJP spokesperson Vaishnavi Gaur also responded to the complaints, accusing the RTI activist of selectively targeting a private individual.
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