Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 21: The Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders on Friday staged a dharna at the Parliament Street police station in New Delhi demanding registration of an FIR over pellet injuries to a student leader during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at the Jantar Mantar on question paper leaks.
Mr Gandhi, who had been demanding to know who gave the order to fire pellet guns on the students, on Friday walked into the police station accompanied by the alleged pellet gunshot victim the 19-year old Sahil Lochab and refused to leave until an FIR is registered in the case.
As the police refused to file an FIR, Mr Gandhi and Sahil then sat on a dharna outside the police station. Mr Gandhi said “brutality” against a peaceful protest is a “serious crime.” He pointed out that neither Union Home Minister Amit Shah has offered an explanation on the use of pellet guns at the protest, nor has Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised.
Accompanied by Lochab, Rahul Gandhi first visited the Mandir Marg police station and sought the registration of the FIR and after his demand was not accepted, he went to the Parliament Street police station and met Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sachin Sharma. Congress leader also sought a report on what actions have been taken by the police so far.
After holding talks with Sharma failed to yield results, the Congress leader, along with Lochab, sat on a dharna at the police station, which also houses the DCP office. His sister, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior party leaders also joined the dharna. Lochab reportedly suffered pellet injuries to the eyes and abdomen during the CJP rally to the Parliament House on July 20 and later underwent surgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre.
“No FIR. No Justice. So We Sit,” the Congress said in a post on X. “Today, LoP Shri @RahulGandhi sat on dharna with the victim outside DCP Office. The DCP still won’t name an investigating officer or register the FIR. This is not delay. This is denial of justice. We will not leave until an FIR is filed.”
The Delhi police informed the Mr Gandhi that the Supreme Court has constituted a High-Powered Committee to examine the allegations of excessive use of police and paramilitary forces against the student protesters.
Mr Gandhi, though, refused to budge until an FIR in the case is registered. “We stand for students. We stand for justice. We will not be silent. Dharna at DCP office till FIR is filed,” the Congress posted on X as Rahul Gandhi, along with the victim and his mother, sat on a chair outside the police station. Soon, Priyanka Gandhi too joined the protest and took her seat next to them as some other senior Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Randeep Singh Surjewala and party workers joined him in his sit-in protest.
While on dharna, Rahul Gandhi posted on X that “on July 20 the police attacked Sahil, who was peacefully protesting at Jantar Mantar, with a pellet gun”. As a result, Gandhi said, Sahil’s “vision in one eye is now at risk.”
According to sources, Sahil had gone with his lawyers at the police station and gave a written complaint, but the officials refused to give a I/O number. On August 17, Sahil once again asked for an I/O number over email and phone, but received no acknowledgement.
At Parliament Street Police Station, Lochab’s lawyer said, “On 14th August we went to the Police Station in Connaught Place. They said that all Jantar Mantar cases have come to Parliament Street Police Station. We came here. They told us that the place of incident is Connaught Place area, so we should go there. We went back to them. The moment they read the complaint, they gave it back to us and made us sit there for very long. SHO spoke to me personally on phone and he told me that they won’t take up the case and as they have received order from above…At the end of the day, we reached out to DCP Crime Branch and we were told that complaints don’t reach there directly…After the LoP came here, the complaint was only stamped but an FIR is still not being registered. This is a clear offence that has happened. We have an MLC copy of Lady Hardinge which says punctured wounds and blood oozing out…”
The Delhi police has denied the use of pellet guns – which can spray dozens of small metal pellets, or birdshot, at a time, and can cause severe injuries – on student protesters.
Pellet guns, which were first used in 2010 against protesters in Kashmir, and shock batons are part of the gear of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), the riot-control wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which was deployed at Jantar Mantar, the protest site. The CRPF is silent on its use during the Delhi protests.
A pellet gun fires cartridges loaded with up to 600 metal or rubber pellets, which disperse in a widespread manner at speeds of 1,000 feet per second. The SOP is that the gun should be fired from a minimum distance of 500 feet. The muzzle of the gun should always be targeted below the waist.
Gandhi, along with the victim, stepped in front of a swarm of cameras and microphones and held up a small plastic box, with a blue cap. He then opened the box and spilled the contents onto his palm and showed them to the reporters.
“Ye hai pellets, dekh lijiye inko, achhi tarah se dekh lijiye, ye hain pellets (These are pellets; take a look at them – look at them closely – these are pellets),” Gandhi said. “Ye inke shareer se aaye (These came from his body),” Gandhi said, urging the student to show the injuries. The Student, who was wearing dark glasses, then rolled up his T-shirt sleeve and showed the injuries.
“Ye inke yahan lage hain charre. 200 charre inke shareer ke andar hain aur teen charre inki aankh main hai (These pellets are lodged in his body. There are 200 pellets inside him and three are lodged in his eye),” Gandhi said.
He then flashed reports from Lady Hardinge Medical College and AIIMS, saying they detail that there are more than 200 pellets lodged in Sahil Lochab’s body. “If police did not fire these pellets, then somebody must have fired them, maybe he fired it upon himself, but a crime has happened. We are simply asking for an FIR to be registered. Here are his mother and father; please file an FIR. We are merely seeking justice for this family,” Gandhi said.
BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Rahul Gandhi of doing “politics of anarchy” and said it appeared a tactic to deflect attention away from the Vande Mataram row. “It is very unfortunate that LoP Rahul Gandhi does politics of anarchy. Currently, he is sitting on dharna at Parliament Street Police Station without permission or prior information. The police have informed him that an FIR has already been registered on the incident he is quoting and it is being probed. The SC has formed a high-powered committee to probe into this. Rahul Gandhi, don’t you want to respect any law? We suspect and allege that Congress is now stuck due to its stance on the national song Vande Mataram. We condemn what the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress is doing right now,” Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding accountability for the “barbaric assault” on peacefully protesting students and asked whether he approved the use of “lethal force” including pellet guns, against the youth.
Soon after the incident in July, Gandhi had similarly presented the pellet gun victim before the media. “You are saying that protesters have been hit by pellet guns. I want to explain when pellet guns were fired. My brother was struck by a pellet gun when he was peacefully protesting with a tricolour in hand,” Gandhi had told reporters with Sahil Lochab by his side. Gandhi also lifted the 19-year-old’s T-shirt to show his injuries to the media.
The Union Minister JP Nadda also slammed the Congress leader for staging the dharna and said the entire nation was once again witnessing the kind of cheap, attention-seeking politics that Rahul Gandhi displayed outside the Sansad Marg police station. He said Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in protest on Friday was neither for the students nor for the sake of justice but was a symbol of the Congress party’s political desperation and Rahul Gandhi’s hunger for media attention.
He said the Congress was already under fire over the ‘Vande Mataram’ issue, and the public was demanding answers and this was merely a new drama staged by Rahul Gandhi to divert attention from that embarrassment. He said, “The whole country knows that the Supreme Court has already taken cognisance of the July 20th incident and has constituted a five-member high-powered committee headed by a former judge.
“When the country’s apex court is investigating the matter, what does Rahul Gandhi hope to prove by sitting in front of cameras outside the police station? Does the Leader of the Opposition lack faith in the country’s judiciary? The truth is that Rahul Gandhi is staging this ‘camera-centric’ drama merely to keep himself in the headlines.”
He claimed that the dharna was a mere attention-divert ploy. “If we consider the timing of this entire drama, we realise that the Congress party is currently facing intense criticism across the nation over the issue of ‘Vande Mataram.’ The public is demanding answers from the Congress regarding the disrespect shown to the national song, especially as a senior Congress leader was seen cutting a cake designed to look like the Tricolour. To conceal this anti-national face of his and to divert attention from the massive embarrassment he has faced, Rahul Gandhi has hastily orchestrated this new drama as a distraction.”
Later, the former Congress president wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding accountability for the “barbaric assault” over the CJP protesters.
The Congress alleged that the pellet gun was fired on the CJP protesters on orders of Mr Amit Shah, adding that Sahil and his mother demanded an FIR, but the police ignored them. It also alleged that no Medico Legal Case (MLC) report was provided to Sahil. “This is blatant injustice. Amit Shah and Delhi Police, listen up—this dictatorship will no longer be tolerated. For the sake of justice for the students, we will keep fighting with full strength,” the Congress said in another X post.