The Cockroach Janta Party on Monday alleged that the police had fired pellet guns at protesters during the campaign’s demonstrations in Delhi.

The Union government classifies pellet guns as a “non-lethal” weapon for crowd control. Its cartridge contains pellets made of rubber or plastic, which can damage sensitive parts like eyes when fired from a short range. Pellet guns have been widely used in Jammu and Kashmir as a means of crowd control during protests.

The Delhi Police claimed that the protesters “resorted to large-scale violence” and vandalised public property.

Meanwhile, the campaign resumed its demonstration at the Jantar Mantar protest site on Monday evening to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations. The police had cleared the area during the day and dismantled the stage from where organisers had been addressing the crowd.

Here’s more on this and other updates:

Protesters, police personnel injured

  • Saurav Das, a spokesperson of the campaign, shared videos of two persons on social media who were injured allegedly in the police action against protesters on Monday. “Alarming goondaism by the Delhi Police!” wrote Das. “They have used pellet guns against peaceful protesters!”
  • The alleged action came during the campaign’s march to Parliament on Monday, coinciding with the start of the Monsoon Session. While police had stopped the protest leaders from proceeding, some demonstrators moved closer to Parliament and gathered at other locations in central Delhi. Security personnel fired tear gas shells at the protesters and lathi-charged them, Scroll reported.
  • The police stated that 60 protesters were injured during the day. One of the injured protesters is in a critical condition, said Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke. “Why did the government unleash such brutal force against the youth?” he asked on social media.

  • The police claimed that 118 security personnel had been injured after the “protesters displayed unruly, aggressive and violent behaviour”. It alleged that the protesters attacked them with stones and vandalised government vehicles.

  • Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, apologised to the political campaign’s supporters saying that the organisers of the protest “could have done better” to protect them from the “inhumane actions” of the police. “To protect one Dharmendra Pradhan, who is responsible for the deaths of more than 20 students, the government was willing to spill the blood of many more young students,” Dipke said on social media.

Protesters detained

  • About 70 protesters have been detained, said the police, adding that a first information report was registered under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to rioting, assault on public servants, damage to public property and “other offences committed during the protest”.
  • It did not clarify which other offences the protesters had allegedly committed.

Watch: Young protesters in Delhi face police lathi-charge and tear gas

Protest resumes at Jantar Mantar

  • The campaign resumed the protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday evening, stating that the demonstration would not end until Pradhan resigns from his post.
  • Earlier in the day, Das along with another spokesperson of the campaign, Ashutosh Ranka, met Union minister JP Nadda at his residence in Delhi and submitted a memorandum. Apart from Pradhan’s resignation, they demanded activist Sonam Wangchuk’s release from the Safdarjung Hospital and a Rs 1 crore compensation for the families of undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test aspirants who died by suicide.
  • Ranka later told the Hindustan Times that “the meeting turned out to be useless”. “No response has come from them,” he was quoted as saying. “Next time, we will not talk to them till they come to the protest site. If they do not value our time, we also do not value theirs.”

Opposition MP begins sit-in at Parliament

  • Azad Samaj Party-Kanshiram chief and MP Chandra Shekhar Azad began a sit-in protest inside the Parliament complex against the “brutal treatment meted out” to the protesters.
  • “In a democracy, every citizen has the constitutional right to express their views peacefully,” he said. “If that right is met with the use of force, it is not merely an assault on a few individuals, but on democratic values themselves.” He added that he was starting his demonstration with a “resolve to safeguard democratic values”.

Protests were also held in other Indian cities and in London.

Written by Sneha. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

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