I
t all began as just one stop to lodge a complaint. It ended as a complete sit-in.
Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi conducted a sit-in outside Parliament Street Police Station on Friday, demanding that an FIR be lodged in respect of injuries he suffered because of the use of pellets during a protest regarding irregularities in NEET on July 20.
Gandhi was not alone. Rahul Gandhi was joined by 19-year-old Sahil Lochab, who is said to have been the alleged victim of the pellet shooting.
Friday was anything but easy for Gandhi, and it was just this kind of message that Congress was trying to send out through Friday.
Gandhi, along with Lochab, visited the police station on Mandir Marg and asked for the filing of the FIR.
It proved to be futile. After being turned down, he visited the Parliament Street police station and met with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sachin Sharma.
This effort too failed. As nothing concrete came out of his talks with the DCP, the Leader of Opposition went on dharna inside the police station, which was also the office of the DCP.
He was, however, not alone for long. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with other Congress leaders, joined the dharna called by Congress workers outside the station.
However, Lochab was not the only one to attempt to compel the police to act.
As per Congress sources, Lochab along with his lawyers approached Delhi Police on August 14, submitting a written complaint to the police.
What happened according to Congress sources was that there was no Investigating Officer number provided by the police nor any acknowledgment of the complaint.
This same thing happened even when Lochab approached Delhi Police by email and phone call on August 17. There was still no Investigating Officer number or acknowledgment of the complaint from the police. Prior to Gandhi taking Lochab to the office of DCP, all of this process had already taken one full week.
This whole conflict revolves around a young man of 19 years, who claims he was merely expressing himself peacefully.
Lochab suffered pellet injuries in his eyes and abdomen during the protest organized by Cockroach Janta Party because of the leak of the NEET question paper and charges of examination malpractices and then underwent surgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre.
In her statement on X, Gandhi made it clear how serious the situation was: "On July 20, police shot pellets at Sahil, who was peacefully protesting in Jantar Mantar. The pellets caused serious injury to Sahil."
The seriousness of the injuries that required eye and abdominal surgeries in one of India's finest trauma centres is what has made this a national political issue for Congress.
But Gandhi did not restrict himself in his demand for an FIR alone. He made the best of the opportunity to target his political opponents through political means.
"I went to the office of DCP in Parliament Street to file an FIR on the issue of police brutality against Sahil Lochab." Said Gandhi on X, charging the Home Minister Amit Shah with being scared of justice. But the accusation from Gandhi was not anything new.
It had been only a few days earlier when Gandhi addressed a press conference, charging the government with shooting protesting students with pellet guns. In fact, Amit Shah was personally responsible for the "brutality" of protesters.
In the wake of using sit-in protest after a month, Gandhi is sending a strong message that he considers the non-filing of an FIR a deliberate obstruction of justice.
The Congress party itself has been very clear on the point that this isn’t about a photo-op for one particular day.
According to sources from Congress itself, Rahul Gandhi is determined to continue his sit-in until the filing of FIRs against the authorities involved – an indefinite protest that will be conducted in the face of the Delhi police, whose ambit comes under the Union Home Ministry and not that of Delhi State.
Indeed, the message sent by the Congress party itself regarding this entire situation was very clear when they declared on X, “No FIR, No Justice, So We Sit.” It is a classic Congress strategy; however, it gains more political weight given the presence of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi themselves at the Delhi Police station.
It is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi finds himself at loggerheads with the law enforcement agencies and the administration of Delhi University.
In the earlier part of 2026, the Delhi Police had lodged an FIR against Rahul Gandhi after the clash between his supporters and the BJP workers outside the Parliament Square where BJP workers had charged him with “physical assault and instigation.”
Rahul Gandhi has found himself in several controversies with the Delhi University Administration on account of his frequent unauthorized entry into the university premises and has been severely criticized by the proctor’s office of the university for interrupting the functioning of the student governments.
All this can be interpreted as developing hostility on the part of Rahul Gandhi towards the Delhi Police and administrative system.
As per the Indian law, it is the duty and not the discretion of the police to file the FIR in case of a cognizable offense, and in this case, the offense being a cognizable one, that is, causing grievous injuries using weapons, the FIR must be filed.
It is on account of the above reason that the Congress party is focusing solely on the matter of filing the FIR in relation to the DCP concerned.
As Gandhi has stated that he will continue with his sit-in until a FIR is registered in his case and it becomes clear that top leaders of the party were involved in this case, it will become increasingly difficult for the Delhi Police to avoid registering a FIR in this case and explain why they had not done so.
Given the fact that this case has drawn so much political attention – from national media reports, charges against the Home Minister to the Leader of Opposition sitting outside a police station – there is no doubt that the long drawn fight will end up in one of the two ways.
