Lochab, too, spoke to the media from inside the police station. According to his hospital report, more than 200 pellets are lodged in his body, including three in his eye. He has lost vision in the affected eye, while some pellets are lodged near his heart and cannot be removed.
Gandhi said Lochab’s family was asking for three things: registration of the FIR, a copy of the daily diary report (DDR) and the name of the investigating officer. The demand came after repeated attempts by Lochab and his lawyers to approach Delhi Police failed to produce an FIR.
On 14 August, Lochab, accompanied by his lawyers, submitted a written complaint to Delhi Police alleging that the police neither provided an investigating officer’s number nor acknowledged receipt of the complaint. The matter was pursued again on 17 August through email and telephone, but, according to Lochab, there was still no acknowledgement or investigating officer’s number.
The Congress has used the episode to revive its wider accountability charge against Shah. Gandhi has argued that if Shah authorised the use of pellet guns, he bears direct responsibility; if he did not, he must still be held accountable for failing to control the force under his ministry.
The BJP, meanwhile, has accused Gandhi of “politics of anarchy” and pointed to the broader investigation into the 20 July violence.
The FIR now changes the immediate political equation, but not the larger question Gandhi has sought to put to Shah: who authorised the use of pellet guns against the protesting students, and who is accountable for the injuries caused?
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