CJP Protest: ‘RAF man shot me, pellets hit me in face,’ says injured protester whom JP Nadda met at hospital

Shaikh Irshad Mansuri, injured during the protest at Jantar Mantar, has said that he was hit by ‘multiple pellets’ fired by an ‘RAF’ man.

Irshad, 25, is undergoing treatment at Lady Hardinge Hospital in Delhi, days after he was among hundreds of protesters who were injured during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) march to the Parliament on 20 July.

The Rapid Action Force, a wing of the CRPF, was on duty that day alongside the Delhi Police during the march, which saw several confrontations break out between protesters and the police in central Delhi.

Irshad, an MBA graduate working in Gurgaon, told Indian Express in an interview from the hospital that he was walking with other protesters near Jantar Mantar when security personnel began lathi-charging the crowd. “An RAF man came in front of me. He was holding a gun. He showed it to me. I thought he was only threatening me, that he wouldn’t actually shoot. Then the blue-uniformed man pointed the gun at my face and shot me… Everything went silent,” he said. Multiple pellets hit me,” Irshad told Indian Express.

Delhi Police have denied use of pellets. The CRPF has not commented yet. “First I smelled something rancid. Then something stung my right eyebrow. Pellets pierced through my right eye and down on my cheek and nose. Then, the pellets hit my chin, and scattered on my neck, my shoulder, my chest. I could taste blood on my tongue. I put my fingers on my face and blood was gushing out from everywhere,” Irshad said.

The Indian Express report quoted hospital officials saying “pellet injuries” refer to the nature of the injury and can be caused by “small objects thrown at speed”. “Whether or not the injury was caused by a pellet gun needs to be scientifically determined on the basis of forensic investigation,” an official told Indian Expess.

Irshad says reached Lady Hardinge Hospital around 5 pm. He said doctors first treated him in the Emergency department before shifting him to the ward.

“The following afternoon, I underwent surgery performed by ENT surgeons, and I signed the consent forms,” he said. Doctors, Irshad said, told him “one pellet was lodged near the muscle controlling the movement of my left eye, and doctors said that if it had remained there, it could have affected my eye movement”.

“Another was lodged in my neck, close to a major nerve and blood vessel. A third was near my nose, inside the facial cavity,” he said.

Pellet guns began to be extensively used for crowd control by central forces from the 2010 unrest in J&K. Since then, they have been used during the 2016 protests in J&K, the 2023 violence in Manipur, the 2024 farmer protests and the 2025 Leh agitation. There is no official record of pellet being used in Delhi

Irshad, meanwhile, was moved to the ENT ward on Tuesday, where he remains admitted.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda also interacted with Irshad on 21 July, a day after he was injured.