'My hands are everything': Artist injured by pellet gun at Jantar Mantar protest continues fight for justice

Eleven days after pellet gun fire ripped through his right hand during the police crackdown on protesters at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, 26-year-old Prashant Singh still cannot draw without pain.

"My hands are everything to me. I'm an artist," he says quietly, looking at the scars that now cover his right hand.

Doctors removed some of the metallic pellets that struck him on July 20, but nine to ten remain lodged inside his body. Those embedded deep in the tissue cannot be removed easily without causing further damage, he says he was told.

"The doctors warned me that surgery to remove the remaining pellets could leave deeper cuts in my hand," Singh said.

For someone who sketches for a living and spends hours with a pencil and notebook, every movement of his fingers now serves as a reminder of the day police used pellet guns to disperse protesters.

Singh had been part of the student movement at Jantar Mantar since June. He first joined the one-day protest on June 6 and returned when the Cockroach Janta Party called for an indefinite demonstration on June 20.

His participation was personal. His younger brother had spent two years preparing for the NEET examination. Singh himself had appeared in examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and says he was deeply disturbed by the alleged irregularities surrounding the examination process.

At the protest site, he often documented the movement through sketches, drawing the security barricades, students waiting in queues, volunteers, the protest stage, and demonstrators singing and beating drums.

On July 20, he stood close to the front barricades when police moved in.

According to Singh, the police first resorted to lathi charge and tear gas before opening fire with pellet guns. "They attacked us without any warning," he alleged.

At first, he did not realise he had been hit.

"I only felt discomfort in my hand. When I rolled up my sleeves, I saw blood and realised pellets had pierced my skin," he recalled.

Friends rushed him to Lady Hardinge Medical College, where he received treatment before being discharged the same day.

Subsequently, he sought medical opinions at Lok Nayak Hospital on July 28 and Holy Family Hospital on July 29. He is scheduled to return for another consultation as doctors continue to assess whether any of the remaining pellets can be safely removed.

"The pain has reduced, but I still cannot use my hand normally," he said.

Looking back at the confrontation, Singh questions why such force was used against students.

"We were only carrying pens and paper. They had pellet guns," he said. "Are we terrorists?"

Singh is now among the petitioners challenging the use of pellet guns against civilians.

Along with Sheikh Irshad Mansoor, he has filed a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court seeking a complete ban on the use of metallic pellet guns against peaceful demonstrators.

The plea comes amid growing scrutiny of police use of force during the July 20 crackdown.

On July 30, the Supreme Court, while hearing the petition, observed that the use of pellet guns is permissible only in "exceptional circumstances" under police rules and sought the Delhi Police's standard operating procedure governing their use. 

The court also directed the Delhi government to ensure adequate medical treatment for those injured during the firing.

For Singh, however, the legal battle is secondary to a more immediate concern.

He still cannot hold a pencil the way he once did. And for an artist, he says, that is the deepest wound.