After Rahul’s dharna, police register FIR on pellet gun use at Delhi protest

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Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi stages a dharna seeking the registration of an FIR over pellet injuries suffered by a youth during the CJP-led July 20 protest, at Parliament Street police station, in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: PTI

Following a six-hour dharna (sit-in) by the Leader of 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.

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 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.