The Delhi Police on Friday registered an FIR concerning 19-year-old Sahil Lochab, who allegedly sustained pellet injuries during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest. The development came hours after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi staged a sit-in outside the Parliament Street Police Station. However, the FIR does not name any individual as an accused.
According to the FIR, the case has been registered under Sections 118 and 125 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Section 118 relates to voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt using dangerous weapons or means, while Section 125 deals with acts that endanger the life or personal safety of others.
The incident unfolded in the early hours of Friday when Gandhi, accompanied by several Congress leaders and Lochab, reached the Connaught Place Police Station after the teenager alleged that Delhi Police had refused to register his complaint. They later went to the Parliament Street Police Station after learning that New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Sharma was present there.
Visuals showed Gandhi, dressed in a white T-shirt and light-brown trousers, entering the police station and asking officials to register Lochab’s complaint. When the officials allegedly refused, he began a sit-in outside the station and said he would not leave until the complaint was registered.
“Three pellets were lodged in his eye, and 200 in his body. There are shells near his heart that cannot be touched. Delhi Police say they did not fire pellet guns. Who fired pellet guns if not cops?” Gandhi told reporters. He also displayed metallic pellets that he said had been recovered from the student’s body.
The protest inside and outside the police station intensified as Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Kumari Selja, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala joined Gandhi. Several other party leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Pawan Khera, also expressed support for the protest on social media.
Khera accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of avoiding accountability and questioned why a young person allegedly had to wait to get an FIR registered after losing his eye.
Kharge also criticised Shah and the BJP, describing them as the “biggest enemies” of the country’s youth. He questioned who had ordered the alleged use of pellet guns against students and why such force was required. Kharge further claimed that Lochab and his mother had been struggling to get an FIR registered and alleged that they had not received a Daily Diary Number, acknowledgement or MLC report from AIIMS.
Congress workers also gathered around the police station, with some reportedly climbing the walls and raising slogans of “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad”.
FIRST STEP TOWARDS JUSTICE: SAYS GANDHI AFTER FIR WAS FILED
After the FIR was registered following his hours-long protest, Gandhi described it as the first step towards justice for Lochab.
He alleged that the delay in filing the case was not limited to the police station and claimed that approval from the Union Home Secretary and Home Minister Amit Shah was required before the FIR could be registered.
“The final approval—the ultimate ‘okay’—had to come from the Home Secretary and Amit Shah himself. Only then was the FIR finally issued,” Gandhi said.
He further claimed that police officers at the station were prepared to register the complaint but were being prevented from doing so by higher authorities.
“These police officers wanted to register it; the others wanted to do it too, but the brakes on justice were being applied from the top,” Gandhi alleged.
Questioning access to justice for ordinary citizens, Gandhi pointed out that even getting an FIR registered at a police station in central Delhi had proved difficult.
“Imagine what must happen at a police station in a village or a small town,” he said.
After the FIR was registered, Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra left the police station, bringing their nearly six-hour sit-in to an end.
