On July 20, dressed in a black T-shirt, light brown trousers, and grey sports shoes, the 28-year-old parked his Pulsar motorcycle at B-Block in Connaught Place before joining the Cockroach Janta Party’s ‘Chalo Sansad’ march, demanding accountability from the Centre over exam paper leaks and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.

“After they took away Sonam Wangchuk, that was the turning point for me,” he says.

As the march moved from Jantar Mantar towards the streets around Connaught Place, the 28-year-old says he remained with the crowd until clashes broke out around 4 pm. “Initially, the police were firing tear gas into the sky, but then I saw it being aimed towards the crowd. A person standing just ahead of me was hit barely one or two inches above his eye by what I believe was a tear gas shell,” he recalls.

He remembers people running. “Everything turned blurry. I could see men in khaki and blue uniforms. The next thing I saw was an officer aiming a gun at me. I turned and started running, but I felt a shot hit my back,” he says.

“At first I felt a tingling sensation. Then it felt like my back was on fire.”

He walked a short distance before sitting down. “Later I saw multiple wounds where blood had clotted,” he says.

‘Removing them could do more harm than good’

With police restricting movement around Connaught Place, the 28-year-old waited for nearly an hour before riding to a friend’s house. “When I reached, I checked my vest. It was drenched in blood,” he says. His friend photographed the wounds and uploaded the images to ChatGPT. “That’s when we first suspected they were pellet injuries,” he says.

Later that evening, he received a tetanus injection. “The pain was excruciating while sleeping,” he says.

The following evening, on July 21, the 28-year-old went to Safdarjung Hospital, reaching around 7 pm and remaining there until nearly 4 am the next morning.

“The doctors first cleaned the wounds and put me on an IV drip, which eased the pain. Several doctors examined me. After a CT scan, MRI and X-ray, they told me I had been hit by more than 30 pellets,” he said.

According to him, the treating doctors advised against surgically removing them. “They told me there were pellets in large quantities. I counted around 25 to 30 myself. The doctors said they would have to make incisions to remove them, and that removing them could do more harm than good. They said, ‘Let them remain inside’,” he says.

The doctors also told him he was fortunate the pellets had not lodged close to his bones, he says. “They said if they had been near the bones, I might not have been able to move my arm.”

For now, the 28-year-old has been advised to take medicines whenever the pain worsens. “Doctors said the wounds will heal, but the pellets may remain inside. I don’t know what happens after that,” he says.

He has a follow-up appointment with an orthopaedic specialist at Safdarjung Hospital, but said he also plans to seek a second opinion elsewhere. For his injuries, he added, he wants “compensation from the government”.

Tabshir Shams covers health for The Indian Express. He holds a Master's degree in International Relations from South Asian University. Before joining The Indian Express, he interned at The Hindu from December 2025 to June 2026, where he assisted in the research and editing of a book on delimitation published by The Hindu Group Publications. During this time, he also wrote for The Hindu's Text & Context section, on subjects ranging from Pakistan's military establishment to Bangladesh's elections, and reported a Spotlight feature on a jute mill in Samastipur and its ripple effects on labour migration and the local economy. In July 2025, he interned at The Indian Express, where he wrote several explainers on international relations alongside a health report. His Master's thesis examines civil-military relations in Pakistan, with a focus on the post-2019 period. ... Read More

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