Lying on a hospital bed in the heart of Delhi after surgery, 25-year-old Irshad Shaikh struggles to find words for what happened to him on the chaotic afternoon of July 20.
Speaking to The Indian Express Wednesday from the ENT ward of Lady Hardinge Hospital, Shaikh, an MBA graduate working in Gurgaon, was among the protesters who had joined the CJP’s “Chalo Sansad” march that day when, he says, he was hit by “multiple pellets” fired by an “RAF man”.
The RAF (Rapid Action Force), drawn from the CRPF, was on duty that day, along with the Delhi Police, to control the massive crowd of protesters who were part of the Parliament march — a faceoff that quickly spiralled into clashes with the security personnel wielding lathis and teargas.
On Wednesday morning, Delhi Police denied they used pellets. The CRPF did not respond to a request for comment from The Indian Express. When asked if Shaikh had pellet injuries and about the nature of his treatment, Dr Himani Ahluwalia, Director, Lady Hardinge Hospital, did not comment.
Irshad Shaikh at Lady Hardinge Hospital
Officials in the hospital said “pellet injuries” refer to the nature of the injury and can be caused by “small objects thrown at speed”. “Whether or not the injury was caused by a pellet gun needs to be scientifically determined on the basis of forensic investigation,” an official said.
Irshad said: “The call for the protest was around 9 am, so from 9-11 am, I was near the protest site, close to Kerala Bhavan (House). Then, I had a meeting from 12.30-3.30 pm. After finishing the meeting, I came back.”
He said: “I was walking with other protesters near Jantar Mantar when security personnel began lathi-charging the crowd. We retreated a bit. Then, the police started firing tear gas. My eyes started itching. It was like a blackout for a minute. When we turned back, there was a police blockade, so we stopped. I went up to the police and pleaded with them, ‘Sir, do not beat us. We are students. We are citizens of your country. We are not terrorists’.”
Irshad said that an “RAF man came in front of me”. “He was holding a gun. He showed it to me. I thought he was only threatening me, that he wouldn’t actually shoot,” he said.
Behind him, he said, there were screams and the sound of lathis striking people. “Then the blue-uniformed man pointed the gun at my face and shot me… Everything went silent,” he said.
“Multiple pellets hit me. First I smelled something rancid. Then something stung my right eyebrow. Pellets pierced through my right eye and down on my cheek and nose. Then, the pellets hit my chin, and scattered on my neck, my shoulder, my chest. I could taste blood on my tongue. I put my fingers on my face and blood was gushing out from everywhere,” he said.
Despite the injuries, Irshad said, he did not lose consciousness. “There was no siren or warning from the police. If you search online, you can find videos of me covered in blood. I walked away from there. Some bystanders put a cloth over my face and took me out,” he said.
Irshad reached Lady Hardinge Hospital around 5 pm. He said doctors first treated him in the Emergency department before shifting him to the ward, where he filled out the admission forms himself.
“After reaching the hospital, my wounds were cleaned, and the treating staff informed me that there were pellets lodged in my face, eyes, and neck. At the time, they said no surgeons were available during the night, so I was given pain management and asked to wait until the next day. The following (Tuesday) afternoon, I underwent surgery performed by ENT surgeons, and I signed the consent forms,” he said.
According to Irshad, the treating doctors told him that “one pellet was lodged near the muscle controlling the movement of my left eye, and doctors said that if it had remained there, it could have affected my eye movement”.
“Another was lodged in my neck, close to a major nerve and blood vessel. A third was near my nose, inside the facial cavity,” he said.
Pellet guns began to be extensively used for crowd control by central forces from the 2010 unrest in J&K. Since then, they have been used during the 2016 protests in J&K, the 2023 violence in Manipur, the 2024 Punjab-Haryana farmer protests and the 2025 Leh agitation.
Irshad, meanwhile, was moved to the ENT ward on Tuesday, where he remains admitted.
Later that day, Union Health Minister J P Nadda visited him. “He assured me, ‘Do not worry. You will be taken care of. We are here for you’,” Irshad said.
According to him, the Union Minister also asked why he had gone to the protest. “I told him it was my duty to be there. I joined the protest because I believed in the cause,” he said.
Although Irshad’s family in Jabalpur knows what happened, he has asked them not to travel to Delhi. “My close friends have taken turns staying with me. They have taken care of me here. I just want to recover fast,” he said.
The shooting should never have happened, he said, adding: “I want compensation from the Government.”
Then, Irshad spoke about the life he had imagined before July 20. “I have done my MBA from Indore. In the next five years, I want to expand my horizons and my knowledge, and continue to learn. I want to be a part of the change,” he said.
There’s a footnote.
On the evening of July 13, after signing out for the day from the Internet company where he works, Irshad headed to a hospital in Gurugram and donated blood — responding to a call for a 10-year-old cancer patient. A week later, he found himself on a hospital bed.
