The dharna was called off on a triumphant note thereafter, with Gandhi hailing the “first step of justice”, even as he alleged that “people at the top” had kept the police from registering the FIR on Lochab’s complaint about him suffering pellet injuries, allegedly during the July 20 police action against agitating students. The FIR was filed against “unknown” accused.
“This is the first step of justice. A case is lodged. It has been a month since the pellets hit his (Lochab’s) body and eyes. Injustice has been done to this youth. We came here around 11 am. Before that he had been going around for a month. An FIR has now been finally filed,” Gandhi told journalists, with Lochab and others flanking him. “Now you imagine how many women are raped in this country, how many children are being beaten up, how many youths are being fired upon… Imagine, if right here, at the heart of New Delhi, justice is being denied, imagine what is being done in police stations of villages and small towns.”
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha further said, “We did nothing wrong, we only demanded justice for a son and his mother. Imagine it took eight hours (of dharna), and the final permission had to be given by Amit Shah ji and the home secretary. Then only the FIR was registered. So you understand who was stopping the FIR. The cops wanted to file the FIR but those at the top had put brakes on justice.”
This was the second dharna by Gandhi and his party colleagues after they held one near the prime minister’s residence last month following the police action against student protesters on July 20.
Thanking Gandhi, his lawyer and others, Lochab said, “It is a victory of justice. I felt sad it took such a long time to file the FIR.”
Earlier, Lochab said he had approached the police station on August 14 with a medical report but couldn’t get an FIR filed. Subsequently he posted on August 17 a complaint to the station, but could not obtain details of the investigating officer.On Friday, the dharana started around noon after Gandhi and Lochab, along with the latter’s mother and lawyer, visited the police station again to press for an FIR. Gandhi then displayed some pellets and blamed the home minister for the delay in filing the FIR. “Amit Shah ji, why are you so scared of justice? This fear shows that you are admitting to your crimes,” he said.
Congress functionaries, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khursheed, joined the dharna while many Congress workers and members of the party’s youth and student wings gathered outside the police station and raised slogans.
