PTI
New Delhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday staged a dramatic six-hour dharna at the Parliament Street police station here demanding an FIR over pellet injuries to a youth during the July 20 protest and ended it only after police registered the complaint.
Gandhi raised the pitch on the issue after 19-year-old Sahil Lochab claimed that the police was refusing to register an FIR on his complaint despite him suffering pellet wounds including damage to his eye.
Soon after the police registered the FIR late in the evening, Gandhi said this is the first step towards justice and ended his dharna.
The BJP hit back at Gandhi and accused him of playing “politics of anarchy” only to remain relevant in the media and termed this as Congress’ attempt to divert attention from the “wrong stand” taken on Vande Mataram.
Gandhi accompanied Lochab and his mother to the Mandir Marg police station in the morning, which refused to register the FIR. He then took them to Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi area) Sachin Sharma, where he warned that if no FIR is registered he would sit on dharna for days together.
With the police claiming that the matter is being investigated and no FIR can be booked, Gandhi, along with Sahil and his mother, then sat on dharna in the police station premises with several Congress leaders joining him.
The Parliament Street police station turned into a protest venue. Top Congress leaders like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Kumari Selja, Adhir Ranjan Chiwdhury, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, among others, converged on the police station along with hundreds of party workers. They raised slogans against the government and slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the alleged police “brutality” against students.
Gandhi earlier claimed that he was told by police officers that an FIR could not be registered as “there are orders from the top”. While ending his dharna, he said the final FIR was registered only after an okay from Home Secretary and Amit Shah.
“You can imagine who was stopping the registration of an FIR, as these cops wanted to do so but they were not allowed,” Gandhi said. Targeting the Home Minister, Gandhi asked why is Shah so afraid of justice. “This is the first step towards justice and a case has been registered,” Gandhi said.
He said the FIR in this case was registered after hours of protest, saying “one can imagine what people of the country suffer when they seek justice in other parts of the country”.
Lochab and his mother also said that it was only due to the efforts of Gandhi that the FIR was registered.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister J P Nadda accused the Congress leader of indulging in “cheap and anarchic” politics to divert attention from his party’s stand on Vande Mataram.
The Delhi police registered the FIR over pellet injuries suffered during the July 20 protest, following the complaint of injured youth Sahil Lochab, a resident of Najafgarh.
The case was registered under Sections 118 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 25 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
According to his complaint, Lochab alleged a person in blue uniform carrying a large gun fired several metal pellets. Lochab said he was hit around five or six times and started bleeding from his eye, face, hand and chest.
