Gurgaon: Like many others who wanted to show their solidarity with protesters demanding education reforms and the sacking of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Nootan Toppo had on July 20 taken the metro to reach Jantar Mantar.When she returned home that night, she had a ruptured ear from which she was unable to hear, several stitches under a white bandage and throbbing pain that refused to let her sleep.Nootan (32, who had gone to the protest with two friends, had just spoken to others gathered there and taken a selfie when “all hell broke loose”. “Police and personnel in blue uniforms (RAF) charged at us from nowhere and rained lathi blows on whoever was nearby,” she told TOI on Monday.
Toppo’s medico-legal report mentions a ‘suspected gunshot injury’
In panic and anger, she screamed, instinctively running towards the cops and RAF personnel, joining others in asking where their badges were. “None of the personnel had name badges,” she said. Nootan claimed she confronted a RAF personnel, who had a gun in his hand. There were men in civilian clothes, she added, walking alongside them, sticks in hand. “The men in civil dress were abusing us, making filthy remarks. If they were police officers, why were they being allowed to act like this?” she asked.Nootan collapsed to the ground after something thwacked into her right ear, leaving her bleeding and in pain. “I could not hear anything clearly. It felt like my ear was sliced open. There was blood everywhere,” she said. Fellow protesters helped contain the bleed — “someone gave me her stole” — while her friends took her to RML Hospital. There, after medical care and stitches, Nootan said she learnt she was purportedly hit by a rubber bullet.A week later, the pain has eased but not the trauma. “We were not attacking anyone. We were just standing there,” she said.Medical records, including her medico-legal report, noted a “swelling of ear lobe” and recorded a “suspected gunshot injury”. She underwent a nearly two-hour reconstructive plastic surgery on her ear.For Nootan, who completed her dual master’s degrees in political science and physical education in 2021 during the pandemic when she lived in Bhopal, the protest was “deeply personal”. “I came because this is about students’ futures. If exams are compromised, what are we working towards? I felt it was my responsibility to stand there,” said Nootan, who moved to Gurgaon city in 2021 and found a job. She hadn’t thought participating in a democratic exercise would leave her physically and emotionally scarred.Now recovering at her home in Ranchi, Nootan continues to get fever. Her hearing remains impaired and she is still grappling with questions about how the day unfolded. “I just want people to know what happened. We went there to raise our voice, not to be shot at by people who won’t even show their identity.”
