Delhi Police diary confirms use of pellet rounds against student protesters
New Delhi: A Delhi Police general diary entry has confirmed that personnel of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) fired ballistic cartridges loaded with plastic pellets during the “Chalo Sansad” protest in New Delhi, contradicting the police’s earlier public denial that pellet guns were used against anti-exam leak demonstrators.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the diary entry, recorded at 1:24 a.m. on July 20 at Parliament Street Police Station, documents the use of multiple crowd-control munitions by the RAF during the protest and states that the firing was carried out “on the orders of the DCP [Deputy Commissioner of Police].”
As reported by The Hindu, the official record states that the RAF Deputy Commandant fired 55 rounds of non-electrical shells, 15 rounds of electrical shells, five tear gas grenades and two ballistic cartridges loaded with plastic pellets from an anti-riot gun.
The revelation comes a day after an internal inquiry by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) concluded that an RAF soldier fired at least seven rounds from a pellet gun, five of which struck peaceful protesters. The inquiry also found that the force was used in violation of standard operating procedures, as the demonstrators were neither armed nor violent.
The latest disclosure directly contradicts the Delhi Police’s earlier claim that reports of pellet guns being used against protesters were “completely false and misleading.” At the time, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) had asserted that no pellet guns were used against peaceful demonstrators and urged the public not to circulate what he described as unverified information.
The RAF, a specialised anti-riot unit of the CRPF, had been deployed in central Delhi on July 20 during the “Chalo Sansad” march organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and several student organisations, demanding the resignation of then Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak scandal.
The deployment marked the first reported use of pellet-firing crowd-control weapons against unarmed civilian protesters in the Indian capital. At least five cases of pellet-related injuries were reported following the crackdown, including that of 25-year-old Prashant Kumar Singh, who sustained pellet injuries during the protest.
Meanwhile, two injured protesters, Prashant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoori, have approached the Indian Supreme Court seeking a ban on the use of partly or wholly metallic pellet guns for crowd control.
The petition comes amid mounting scrutiny over the conduct of Indain forces’ personnel during the July 20 protest and growing calls for accountability over the use of force against demonstrators.
