One month after Indian police deployed unlawful and deadly force against peaceful protesters at the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led “
Chalo Sansad
” march, not a single officer in Delhi has been held accountable, Amnesty International said today as it published a new digital investigation documenting the police response to the protests.
Witness testimony and video and photographic evidence verified by Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab confirm that police used weapons including pellet-firing shotguns, tear gas launchers, grenades, batons and electric shock devices against protesters between 20 July and 24 July in Delhi and Siwan town in Bihar state. The weapons were deployed in a manner that breached international law and standards and domestic policing guidelines. Amnesty International also verified two instances of a police officer unlawfully using lethal force against a crowd.
On X, the Delhi Police
publicly denied
any disproportionate use of force, repeating it before India’s Supreme Court, describing its handling of the protest as
“professional”
. Evidence gathered by Amnesty International directly contradicts this account.
“Instead of facilitating the right to protest, Indian authorities suppressed it first with a communication blackout, barricades and transport disruption. They then attempted to crush it with unnecessary or excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, including children. This heavy-handed response was state-sanctioned violence masked as crowd control. The continued impunity after a month is a testament to that,” said Aakar Patel, Chair of Board, Amnesty International India.
Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab verified 17 videos filmed on 20 July in central Delhi across the area spanning Jantar Mantar, Sansad Marg and Connaught Place and two videos filmed in Siwan town of Bihar state on 24 July. In videos filmed in Delhi, personnel from Delhi Police, the Rapid Action Force (RAF), and the Central Reserve Police Force (CR
… [more]
