Doctors have reportedly told Sahil Lochab’s family that there is only a ‘1% chance’ of vision returning to his right eye.
New Delhi: Reports have now confirmed a fourth person who was at the youth protests in New Delhi on July 20 and is being treated for pellet-like injuries. Sahil Lochab, 19, was operated on at the AIIMS Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre on July 21, and is likely to lose his eyesight on one side, The Hindu reported.
Doctors have told his family that there is only a “1% chance” of vision returning to his right eye.
Lochab lives in southwest Delhi’s Najafgarh and is a student of Delhi University’s School of Open Learning. “He had attended the CJP protests before and went again on Monday (July 20), saying it was important and would help his studies… He always wanted to become a police officer. He is pursuing a distance-learning course while preparing for competitive examinations,” his mother Jyoti told The Hindu.
“Sahil said he was hit directly in his eye. From what we have been told, a second operation for his pupils will determine whether his vision will return to normal,” Sahil’s childhood friend Parvesh told The Hindu.
Sahil had been taken to the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) in central Delhi before being transferred to AIIMS.
Jyoti expressed anger and disbelief at the possible use of pellet guns against students. “How can they do this to young children who only want to build their career. It’s the responsibility of the government to see who fired the pellet gun,” she told The Hindu Business Line.
The Wire has reported in detail about another patient currently lodged in LHMC, who also underwent a surgery to remove pellet-like objects from his body, Shaikh Irshad Mansoori. The Wire has been able to confirm where Irshad was injured – over the underground Palika Bazaar in Connaught Place – and also found a video of a Rapid Action Force (RAF) jawan firing what appears to be a pellet gun at the same location and at the same time, on his abdomen. Another video being shared on social media also shows a second person with pellet-like injuries at the same site on July 20.
Experts have confirmed to The Wire that the guns being seen in videos and images of RAF personnel from July 20 are 12-bore pump-action rifles, colloquially called pellet guns. “Instead of a single bullet, its ammunition typically consists of many small pellets that spread out and cover a wide range when fired and discharged from the barrel,” a professional shooter told The Wire.
On July 22, Outlook magazine reported that one its own reporters was fired upon by a weapon that matches the description of a gun that can fire pellets. The injuries also match what would occur after being hit by pellets.
“Medical records prepared after the incident documented multiple puncture wounds on his arm. Photographs reviewed by Outlook show several small injuries resembling pellet-like wounds,” the report said. It has shared photographs of the injuries and a medical report. This incident too occurred near Palika Bazar – where Irshad and the second victim were injured. The journalist narrowly escaped being hit in the chest and face, but secured severe injuries on his arm, the publication reports. He happened to turn away from the firing jawan just as the shot was released.
The Delhi Police has repeatedly “fact-checked” claims of pellet gun usage by its personnel on July 20, even responding to journalists reporting on the matter with this. However, the allegation of pellet gun usage during this peaceful protest is being levelled not at the Delhi Police but at the RAF – which comes under the Central Reserve Police Force and has been deployed in large numbers during the ongoing protests. The Wire has reached out to the IG, RAF to ask about this, but response has been received. A DIG in the CRPF told The Wire that only the IG, RAF would be able to answer these queries.
This article went live on July twenty-third, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-nine minutes past nine in the morning.
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