A general diary entry filed at Parliament Street police station has revealed that the Rapid Action Force (RAF) fired two rounds from an anti-riot gun on the directions of a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) rank officer during a protest on July 20. This contradicts the Delhi Police’s earlier denial of using pellet guns during the march to Parliament, in which at least four persons were hit with pellets. According to the general diary entry, the RAF Deputy Commandant fired 55 rounds of non-electrical shell, 15 rounds of electrical shell, five tear smoke granite, and two rounds using ballistic cartridges with plastic pellets from an anti-riot gun to control the crowd during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest.
The entry states that the action was taken on the orders of the DCP. The Hindu reported on July 21 that two people, who were hit by pellets allegedly fired by RAF personnel, were being operated upon at government hospitals. One of them, Sahil Lochab (19), risks losing vision in his right eye due to a pellet piercing his pupil, his family said.
Pellet guns and shock-batons are part of the gear of the RAF, the anti-riot unit under the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which was deployed alongside Delhi Police on July 20 in and around Jantar Mantar. This was the first time that a pellet gun has been used in the national capital against unarmed protestors. The Supreme Court is hearing several petitions on police using disproportionate force against protesters.
Retired Intelligence Bureau Special Director Yashovardhan Azad, and two other victims of pellet gun injuries, have moved the Supreme Court to demand decommissioning or banning the use of pellet guns for crowd dispersal and grant of exemplary compensation to all victims of pellet injuries.
