Parliament Street Police Registers FIR After Rahul Gandhi’s 5-Hour Dharna Over Pellet Gun Injury to Student
Sunil Negi
NEW DELHI | 21 August 2026
The Parliament Street police station has registered an FIR against police personnel for allegedly firing a pellet gun at 19-year-old student protester Sahil Lochab during the July 20 student agitation at Jantar Mantar.
The FIR under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was lodged after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sat on a dharna for five hours inside the Parliament police station demanding action.
Sahil Lochab, a Delhi University SOL student and police recruitment aspirant from Najafgarh, suffered pellet injuries on his face, chest, shoulder and right eye during the crackdown on the CJP-led “Sansad Chalo” march against paper leaks on July 20. According to AIIMS Trauma Centre doctors, a pellet perforated the cornea of his right eye and another lodged in his lung, with only a 1% chance of vision returning in that eye.
The use of pellet guns has triggered a major political row. Delhi Police has denied using pellet guns, while CRPF has said it is verifying reports that its Rapid Action Force personnel deployed for crowd control used anti-riot guns.
In a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah on July 25, Rahul Gandhi had asked who approved the use of “lethal force including pellet guns” and who deployed plainclothes personnel seen beating protesters.
Congress has demanded that policemen in civil dress, who were seen in videos lathi-charging students mercilessly during the peaceful protest, should also be identified and booked.
It may be recalled that about eighty students and youth activists were admitted to various government hospitals including AIIMS and Lady Hardinge Medical College after the lathi-charge and teargassing on July 20, with at least four confirmed pellet injury cases.
