Police Document Confirms RAF Used Pellet Rounds During July 20 Protest in Delhi

The General Diary entry confirms that RAF personnel deployed two rounds of plastic pellet cartridges from an anti-riot gun on the explicit direction of a Delhi Police DCP to control a crowd marching toward Parliament (The Hindu). This was a calibrated, commander-authorised use of a less-lethal option — 55 non-electrical shells, 15 electrical shells, five tear-smoke grenades, and two pellet rounds — not an indiscriminate firing (The Hindu). The earlier denial reflected the information available at the time; the diary entry now provides the authoritative operational record and has been placed before the court where the matter is sub judice (The Hindu). Delhi Police stands by the operational decision taken on the ground to prevent a breach of the prohibitory orders in force around Parliament.

The General Diary entry confirms that a DCP ordered RAF to fire two rounds of plastic pellets from an anti-riot gun at protesters marching to Parliament, directly contradicting Delhi Police's earlier public denial that pellet guns were used (The Hindu). A 19-year-old protester may lose vision in one eye from those pellets, proving the "less-lethal" label does not prevent life-altering injury (The Hindu). The diary records 77 total munitions fired — 55 non-electrical shells, 15 electrical shells, five tear-smoke grenades, and the two pellet rounds — against a peaceful CJP march, which was a disproportionate response to a protest exercising constitutional rights (The Hindu). The matter is now before the courts precisely because the operational record exposes a deliberate falsehood by the police leadership.

The diary entry records two pellet rounds among 77 total munitions fired on explicit DCP orders to enforce prohibitory orders around Parliament, not an indiscriminate barrage against a peaceful march (The Hindu). The earlier denial was corrected once the operational record was verified and placed before the court where the proportionality of the force used is now sub judice (The Hindu). Pellet cartridges from an anti-riot gun are a standard less-lethal option for crowd control when tear smoke and shells prove insufficient to halt a surging crowd approaching a high-security zone.

The diary entry confirms the DCP ordered two pellet rounds fired at protesters, and a 19-year-old may now lose vision in one eye — that is the operational reality, not a theoretical "less-lethal" label (The Hindu). Delhi Police's claim that the earlier denial was merely an information gap collapses when the same force filed a General Diary at 1.24 a.m. recording the pellet use, yet leadership publicly denied it the next day (The Hindu). Firing 77 munitions including pellet rounds at a march exercising constitutional rights, then misleading the public about it, is why multiple petitions are now before the courts seeking accountability (The Hindu).