Following a seven-hour dharna (sit-in) by the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, outside the office of New Delhi’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, police registered an FIR against the use of pellet guns on protesters during the July 20 march to Parliament.
Mr. Gandhi sat in the dharna after Sahil Lochab, a 19-year-old who lost his vision in one eye after being hit by pellets during the protest, said the police had refused to register an FIR on his complaint.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi dharna in Delhi highlights
The Congress leader, accompanied by his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and other senior Congress leaders, ended the sit-in after the police relented.
Mr. Lochab said he had written a seven-page complaint as soon as he was discharged from the hospital and went to various police stations to get an FIR registered. “But the police did not acknowledge my complaint. I have been trying to get an FIR registered first at Connaught Place, then at Mandir Marg, Sansad Marg and even the Crime Branch but to no avail,” he said.
A student of the School of Open Learning at the University of Delhi, Mr. Lochab, had said in his complaint that he received multiple pellet injuries on his chest, back, arms, and face. He was seriously injured in his right eye; pellets had entered his body, and several of them could not be taken out. “My medical documents show that there are over 200 pellets in my body. Doctors have told me that the possibility of my eyesight coming back is less than one percent,” he wrote in his complaint.
On Friday (August 21, 2026), Mr. Gandhi accompanied Mr. Lochab and his mother first to the Mandir Marg police station and then to the Sansad Marg police station. “Sahil and his family have been moving pillar to post to get his complaint registered. Why is the police refusing to do so,” he told presspersons outside the DCP’s office.
The FIR was registered in the evening under Sections 118(1) (voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons) and 125 (for endangering the life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“It took them so long to register the FIR. It has been a month since the march when he sustained his injuries. Even after multiple visits, the police refused to receive the complaint. Who was holding it back? The final order has come from the Union Home Ministry. We all know now that even for an FIR to be registered, the Home Minister has to give an order,” Mr. Gandhi said.
“If it takes that long to get even an FIR registered in the heart of the national capital, what would happen in a small village or town?”, Mr. Gandhi said.
Senior Congress leader Salman Khursid said that with the registration of the FIR, which mentions the use of pellet guns, “it is now documented that the police used pellets on July 20, contrary to the police’s denial earlier.”
Earlier in the day, as senior Congress leaders sat on a dharna, party members gathered outside the police station to show their support. The police barricaded Sansad Marg, blocking all entry points to the station complex.
The Hindu had reported that an entry in the general diary of Delhi’s Sansad Marg police station recorded the use of pellet guns by Rapid Action Force (RAF), who were authorised to use anti-riot guns during the July 20 march, contradicting the Delhi Police’s initial denial that pellet guns had been used against protesters.
The entry records the firing of two rounds from an anti-riot gun on the orders of a Delhi Police officer of DCP rank, while a subsequent CRPF inquiry reportedly found that an RAF personnel fired seven pellet rounds, five of which struck protesters. The reported use of pellets has raised questions over the police’s crowd-control protocols and the circumstances in which force was deployed against demonstrators.
On Thursday (August 20, 2026), the Supreme Court constituted a five-member High-Powered Enquiry Committee, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, to conduct an independent inquiry into the police action. The committee will examine the use of pellet guns, lathis, tear gas and electric batons, whether the police response was proportionate, and what caused the injuries of the protesters.
Published – August 21, 2026 06:19 pm IST
