New Delhi: Several women police personnel, posted at and around Jantar Mantar on July 20, said they were injured during the students’ march. Some alleged that stones were thrown at them.Shristi Pandey, an IPS officer, was stationed near Kerala Bhawan around 12.30 pm when the protesters tried to breach a three-layer barricade. She said the students kept pushing the barricade to make way for the march, while police tried to hold the structure in place. She said the massive force caused injuries to her abdomen and shoulders. “At one point, the protesters started pushing police against the barricades. Several personnel were injured. I was also hurt,” Pandey said.When she was asked about police high-handedness, an allegation many protesters have made, Pandey said: “If we had intended to use a heavy-handed approach, we would have done so in the morning itself.”Additional CP Nupur Prasad said someone threw stones from the roof of a public washroom while police were stopping protesters from moving towards Sansad Marg between noon and 12.30 pm. She was at the receiving end of this, leading to injuries. Her colleague, Monika Bhardwaj, was injured when protesters allegedly threw stones at police near Sansad Marg at 11.30 am and at Janpath around 4 pm. Bhardwaj injured her hands and feet. Her operator was struck in the face by a flying brick. “I had bruises all over my body,” Bhardwaj said. “My left hand was red from the impact.”Another IPS officer, Niharika Bhatt, said the protesters at Sansad Marg threw stones, flower pots, shoes and slippers at police. They uprooted paving stones at Janpath and hurled those, she said. Bhatt also had bruises on her hands and feet.The protesters also used pepper spray on the cops, she said. “We had been engaging with protesters through dialogue since 6 am for nearly seven hours,” she said.Additional DCP Aishwarya Singh said that around 4.20 pm, near the Tolstoy Road-Janpath area, stone throwing started. Several in her team were hurt. She suffered an injury on her left foot. They remained defensive until reinforcements arrived, after which police used force to control the situation.
