After Rahul Gandhi’s dharna, police lodge FIR over pellet firing at 19-year-old

“The case has been lodged. It took eight hours. This is New Delhi and justice is not being gien here. Imagine what happens at police stations in the villages. Imagine how many women are raped and children are beaten in the country,” he said.

Gandhi claimed the FIR was registered only after “final permission” from Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “You should understand who was stopping the FIR. These policemen wanted to lodge the FIR, but brakes on justice were put from the top,” he alleged.

The BJP accused the Congress leader of “cheap and diversionary politics”. Union Minister J P Nadda said his protest was “neither for students nor for justice” but a display of “political desperation” and his “insatiable hunger for ‘footage’”.

Sahil told reporters that the FIR was “a win for justice”. He said he was disappointed that “despite being with the Leader of Opposition, it took eight hours to lodge an FIR… Had the LOP not supported me, this may not have happened”.

In the FIR, Sahil has said that he was hit by pellets during a stampede-like situation on July 20. “I suddenly felt as if something had struck the right side of my body, including my chest near the heart, my arm, and my eye. When I turned around, I saw a person in a blue uniform, holding a large gun, and I was struck by several metal pellets fired from it,” the FIR states.

“The doctor clearly mentioned in my MLC (medico-legal case report) that the injury to my eye had been caused by a pellet. It was also mentioned that the possibility of recovery of vision in my eye was less than 1 per cent. Some pellets will remain inside my eye for the rest of my life,” it states.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi went to the Mandir Marg police station, and then to the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Delhi, at Parliament Street. Congress leaders said he wanted to help Sahil, who had submitted a written complaint to police on August 14, but was being stonewalled.

“He (Sahil) pursued (the case) on 17th (August) by email and phone. But he was not given details of the Investigating Officer. No acknowledgement was given either,” a Congress leader said.

Gandhi, who was joined at the dharna by his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Kumari Selja, claimed police officers had told him they were under “orders from the higher-ups to not lodge an FIR”.

“A young Indian is injured and his mother is standing here… Till there is an FIR, we will not move from here… We are being told that in India, a youngster can be shot at. The Home Ministry of Amit Shah will not allow justice to prevail,” he said.

Several cases of pellet-gun injuries came to light after the police cracked down on thousands of young men and women protesting against paper leaks on the streets of Delhi on the first day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session. The Indian Express had reported earlier that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had found that a Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel had fired seven rounds from a pellet gun, five of which had hit protesters.

“On July 20, pellet guns were used at Connaught Place. What is the proof of that? It is here,” Gandhi said as he showed a small box apparently containing pellets. “Where did they come from? They came from his (Sahil’s) body,” he said.

“He (Sahil) won’t be able to see with one eye. There are pellets very close to his heart. Delhi Police said they didn’t use pellet guns. Then who used these pellets?” Gandhi said.

Sahil said he had been admitted to Lady Hardinge hospital and then referred to AIIMS, where he underwent two surgeries. “Even now, I cannot see clearly. I submitted a seven-page complaint through my lawyer, but an FIR was not registered,” he said.

Sahil’s mother, Jyoti, said: “They say that no gun was fired. If not then how did the pellets hit my son?”

Nadda said Gandhi had been informed by the DCP that Sahil’s case was being referred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch, which was investigating cases relating to the July 20 march. Also, Nadda said, the Supreme Court had already constituted a high-power committee to look into the matter.

“When the country’s highest court is investigating the matter, what does Rahul Gandhi seek to prove by sitting outside a police station in front of cameras? Has the Leader of Opposition lost faith in the country’s judiciary,” he asked.

Nadda alleged that the Congress was “surrounded” over the issue of Vande Mataram. “People are demanding answers from the Congress over the insult to the National Song… To divert attention, Rahul Gandhi hastily orchestrated this diversionary drama,” Nadda said.