While Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation brought the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s protest to a close, serious questions remain regarding police conduct—specifically whether pellet guns were used against protesters during the Jantar Mantar standoff in Delhi.
Although the Delhi Police denied using pellet guns during the protest, the injuries sustained by several protesters indicate otherwise.
Several protesters complained of pellet injuries. A 19-year-old's family said that their son may lose vision in his right eye due to a pellet injury.
How severe can pellet injuries be
Pellet guns are capable of causing catastrophic, permanent physical trauma and even death under specific conditions.
The severity of a pellet gun injury is very much dependent on the distance, the physical composition of the pellet and the targeted anatomical area.
Eye injuries
Eye injuries due to pellet impacts are severe, as they can lead to a total loss of vision. The eye, being the most vulnerable part of the body, can be damaged even if low-velocity airgun pellets are used.
Direct impact shatters the cornea or sclera, releasing intraocular pressure and fluid.
In crowd-control scenarios involving high-dispersion pellet shotguns, bilateral ocular trauma is common, often leaving victims permanently blind.
Cardiovascular trauma
When pellets enter major blood vessels, the resulting damage is frequently life-threatening. It could lead to massive haemorrhage. Pellets penetrating a vein or artery can be carried by blood flow to distant sites, causing pulmonary embolisms, strokes, or limb ischemia.
Close-range strikes to the anterior chest wall can penetrate the sternum or intercostal spaces, causing pericardial tamponade (blood accumulating around the heart) or direct myocardial laceration.
Abdominal internal trauma
Pellets entering the chest or abdominal cavity can cause extensive organ damage that requires emergency trauma surgery.
Perforation of lung tissue causes pneumothorax (trapped air collapsing the lung) or hemothorax (blood pooling in the pleural cavity).
Pellets puncturing the small or large intestine spill gastrointestinal contents into the sterile peritoneal cavity, causing rapid, severe sepsis and peritonitis.
Direct impacts to the liver, spleen, or kidneys lead to severe internal bleeding that is difficult to detect without emergency CT scanning.
Neurological trauma
At close range in adults, pellets can penetrate thin areas of the skull (such as the temporal bone or orbital floor), causing cerebral contusions, intracranial haemorrhage, and direct brain tissue damage.
Pellets lodging near or inside the spinal canal can cause permanent neurological deficits, including paraplegia or quadriplegia.
Pellets striking nerve clusters (e.g., brachial plexus) cause permanent motor deficits and chronic neuropathic pain.
Long-term complications
Severe lead toxicity: When lead pellets cannot be safely extracted—particularly those lodged within joint cavities (synovial fluid), bone, or vascular structures—the lead slowly dissolves over time. This leads to systemic lead poisoning, causing: Chronic anemia, severe neurological decline and memory impairment, and kidney failure.
