Gurugram: Delhi Police Wednesday put out a “fact-check” on X denying a protester’s claims that she sustained a gunshot injury during the 20 July demonstration at Jantar Mantar, saying they were not corroborated by medico-legal findings.
This comes on a day when Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in Parliament that there was no firing on protesters.
The MLC (medico-legal certificate), police said, recorded “a lacerated wound in front of the right tragus, with the nature of injury described as blunt”. The X post further said that “as per doctor’s opinion, it is a simple injury and there is no evidence of gunshot injury”, and advised the public “to verify information through authentic sources before sharing such claims”.
The protester at the centre of the claim is Nutan. A 32-year-old private sector employee in Gurugram, Nutan was among the crowd at Jantar Mantar on 20 July when, by her account, a “gunshot” was fired from below the raised section of the park where she was standing. She earlier told a national daily that the shot “grazed right past my ear” as she and others ran, adding that she could not be certain whether she was the intended target.
Nutan further told the daily that she was standing in an upper section of the park near Jantar Mantar, close to a fountain and a steel lion statue, when the shot came from somewhere below. She said it was aimed in the direction of the group she was with. Everyone around her began to run, and in the scramble, she said, the shot grazed her right ear.
FACT CHECK
Claims circulating on social media that a protester sustained gunshot injuries during the July 20, 2026 protest in Central Delhi are not corroborated by the MLC findings.
MLC records a lacerated wound in front of the right tragus, with the nature of injury described…
— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) July 29, 2026
Nutan’s is one of several injury claims to emerge from that evening, and so far the only one referring to a gunshot. ThePrint made repeated attempts to reach Nutan for comment via phone calls and messages. The report will be updated if and when she responds.
ThePrint has accessed two documents from the evening she was treated—her discharge summary from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, and the medico-legal report, or MLR, prepared separately by the hospital’s emergency department to record the findings of a medical examination for legal purposes.
The discharge summary records her admission and discharge on the same day, 20 July. Under the “brief summary of case history” header, it notes a laceration over the ear lobule extending into the conchal region, a perforated tympanic membrane, and an ear canal injury with cartilage exposed.
A CT scan of the head showed a fracture of the right temporal bone, air trapped inside the skull, and blood behind the eardrum, but no bleeding inside the brain and no shift in brain structures.
She was conscious throughout, with no seizures or vomiting. The wound was stitched under local anaesthesia and a hearing test was advised.
Twice in the document, against the history of the injury, a doctor has written and circled the same phrase — “? Gunshot”.
The MLR describes a single lacerated wound roughly 4 by 2 by 1 cm, in front of the right tragus and involving the right temple, with the soft tissue underneath exposed. Her vitals, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen levels were all recorded as normal, and she was found to be fully conscious and oriented.
Under “kind of weapon used” the form has just one word typed in—“blunt”. Whether the injury counts as simple, grievous or dangerous, has been left pending.
The alleged history section only records an injury to the ear during the protest at Jantar Mantar, at around 5 pm.
DCP Rajeev Ranjan, the Delhi Police’s Public Relations Officer, told ThePrint that he had checked with the concerned DCP and that there was no bullet injury involved.
Authorities have denied using pellet guns, but ThePrint has reported, based on hospital confirmation, that at least three people are being treated for injuries that seem to have been caused by pellet guns.
Sharing the MLR with ThePrint, Ranjan pointed to the “blunt weapon” entry as the operative medical finding. He said the question mark against “gunshot” in hospital paperwork reflects what a patient tells the doctor at the time, not a confirmed diagnosis.
“This is not an established fact but the patient’s statement,” Ranjan said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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