SC wants RAF ammo log kept
Court flags pellet-round claims from Delhi’s July 20 NEET protest. The BJP-led Centre is told to preserve the Rapid Action Force’s ammunition record while a ban plea is heard.
The Supreme Court orders preservation of the Rapid Action Force ammunition log as the pellet-round plea proceeds.
The Supreme Court on July 30 asked the BJP-led Centre to preserve the Rapid Action Force’s ammunition log from its Jantar Mantar deployment during the July 20 protest over alleged NEET irregularities, according to a PTI report. The bench was Chief Justice Surya Kant with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana. The petition, filed under Article 32 by former CIC and ex-IPS Yashovardhan Azad and others, seeks a nationwide ban or decommissioning of wholly or partly metallic pellet projectiles used for crowd control, plus compensation and treatment for those injured. (The second petitioner’s full name varies across reports.)
A Delhi Police general-diary entry reported by multiple outlets records 55 non-electric shells, 15 electric shells, five tear-smoke grenades and two anti-riot-gun rounds with plastic pellets used during the operation. That’s a police log as reported, not a court finding. The same PTI copy says the Court asked the Delhi government to ensure the “best treatment” for people with pellet injuries while the case proceeds.
Petitioners allege pellets were fired without provocation, including at people who were fleeing. Those are allegations from the filing, not settled facts. What the Court has done so far is preservation, not production, and certainly not a ban.
For Telangana readers: when crowds are policed with projectiles in Delhi under a BJP-led Union, the fallout lands in every state’s playbook. A central force using pellet rounds on civilians at a protest is not a local quirk; it’s a template waiting for reuse. The BJP-led Centre should explain why plastic- or metal-pellet rounds belong anywhere near a student protest before the Court has to read the log back to them.