CBI Files Chargesheet In Latest NEET Leak Case; Woman Says She Suffered Gunshot Injury Near Jantar Mantar; CJP Warns of Renewed Agitation if Police Don't Drop FIRs
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Snapshot of the day
July 28, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
Days after the two NEET paper leaks triggered a nationwide youth movement that forced the first resignation from the Modi cabinet under public pressure, the CBI today filed a chargesheet against 13 accused in connection with the medical exam’s leak two months ago. It isn’t immediately clear if the agency has filed its chargesheet before the special fast-track court that the government set up to process the matter in the protests’ wake, and before which the CBI lawyer’s failure to turn up resulted in an adjournment of two bail pleas (see CBI skips first hearing below).
It now appears that the brute force used against peaceful protesters in central Delhi on July 20 may have included pellet guns and much more.
The Hindu’s Ashok Kumar reports that Nutan, a 32-year-old protester who works at a private firm in Millennium City in Gurugram, suffered what Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital records describe as a “trauma to right ear by gunshot” after armed personnel in blue uniforms allegedly fired in her direction near Jantar Mantar, away from the main protest site. “Two people had their guns aimed right at us. They were wearing blue uniforms. The person involved wasn’t wearing a name plate,” she is quoted as having said. “We were all fleeing together when the shot was fired, and it grazed right past my ear.”
The Delhi Police, which reports to the Union home ministry, however, has claimed that Nutan’s Medical Legal Report found that the injuries were caused by a “blunt weapon” and not a firearm.
This denial follows another that has already been contradicted by official records. The police publicly claimed that pellet guns were not used against protesters, but a General Diary entry from Parliament Street Police Station, obtained and analysed by Vijaita Singh, tells a different story. The entry, registered at 1:24 a.m. on July 20, states that, “on the orders of the DCP,” the RAF deputy commandant fired 55 non-electrical shells, 15 electrical shells, five tear-gas grenades and two ballistic cartridges containing plastic pellets from an anti-riot gun. This also comes a day after an investigation by the Central Reserve Police Force revealed that a Rapid Action Force jawan had fired at least seven rounds from a pellet gun, with five rounds hitting peaceful protesters. [See

