FIR over pellet firing exposes protest policing
It took eight hours, a Leader of Opposition sitting on dharna outside a police station, and a 19-year-old with a pellet lodged in his eye for Delhi Police to register an FIR. The case is small. The questions it raises are large.
On July 20, on the first day of Parliament's Monsoon Session, police cracked down on thousands protesting paper leaks in Delhi. CRPF's Rapid Action Force fired pellet guns — seven rounds, five hitting protesters. One of them was Sahil Lohchab, 19. His MLC said chance of vision recovery in his right eye is less than 1%. Some pellets will remain inside for life.
Sahil says he was hit during a stampede-like situation. He submitted a written complaint on August 14, emailed on August 17. No acknowledgement. No Investigating Officer details. It was only on August 20, when Rahul Gandhi accompanied him to Mandir Marg police station and then to DCP Central Delhi's office, that an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons and rash act endangering human life was lodged.
Gandhi's allegation: "This FIR was registered only after final permission from Union Home Minister Amit Shah. These policemen wanted to lodge the FIR, but brakes on justice were put from the top.
"BJP called it "cheap and diversionary politics". Union Minister J P Nadda said the protest was not for justice but "political desperation and insatiable hunger for footage". He argued the Supreme Court has already constituted a high-power committee and the Delhi Police case has been referred to Crime Branch. "Has the Leader of Opposition lost faith in the country's judiciary?" Nadda asked.
Two narratives collide here.
For Congress, this is about accountability in the heart of the capital. "Imagine what happens at police stations in villages. Imagine how many women are raped and children are beaten," Gandhi said, holding a small box of pellets he claimed were extracted from Sahil's body.
For the government, it's about procedure. But the optics are damning. Pellet guns, once associated with Kashmir, now used at Connaught Place. A teenager losing vision over a paper-leak protest. And a system where FIR — the first step to justice — needs political pressure.
Sahil called the FIR "a win for justice" but added, "despite being with the Leader of Opposition, it took eight hours... Had the LOP not supported me, this may not have happened." That sentence is the real FIR — against unequal access to justice.