The Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar turned violent on July 20 after Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) used tear gas and lathis on protesters attempting to march towards Parliament.
Delhi Police, however, denied reports of violence and detentions on X. In a post on its official X account, it said that “no such incident” had occurred and claimed that the protest was being handled “professionally”.
In another X post, Delhi Police claimed that a viral video showing protesters alleging that they had found a baton pierced with nails (to attack protesters) was unrelated and had not been recorded at the demonstration.
BOOM found that the video was recorded by UPSC aspirant Upendra Gaur during the July 20 protest and posted on his Instagram account the following day.
Earlier on July 18, dozens of Delhi Police personnel removed climate activist Sonam Wangchuk from the protest site, 20 days after he began a hunger strike demanding resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and action on entrance examination paper leaks.
Protesters: Police Used Batons With Nails;
Delhi Police: Video Not Related To Protests
On July 21, Delhi Police replied to a video posted by Alt News founder Mohammed Zubair showing demonstrators exhibiting a baton fitted with nails to attack them. In the reply police alleged that it was 'fake news' and the video was unrelated to the CJP protest.
BOOM was able to confirm that the video was recorded by an UPSC aspirant Upendra Gaur during the July 20 protest. Gaur posted it on his Instagram account the following day.
Gaur told BOOM, “I was present there and shot the video yesterday. It was recorded near Gate No. 3 of Janpath Metro Station, at the intersection outside. When the police were beating the protesters, we noticed that one of the batons had nails fitted into it. We also saw some girls who had been injured.”
Further, we reached out to another protester who had filmed a video of protesters arguing with police personnel about the baton from another angle. BOOM has not included the protester's identity as he is a minor.
We did a metadata analysis of the longer video which shows shows that it was shot on July 20, 2026 at 16.33. This can be seen below:
We extracted the video’s GPS coordinates using Metadata view and found that they matched the location where the protest videos were recorded.
The baton can be seen at the 40-second timestamp.
The same claim was amplified by PIB Fact Check's official X handle.
The videos establish that the footage was recorded near the protest site. However, they do not independently establish who fitted the nails into the baton or whether it was used by police personnel.
Delhi Police: No Sporadic Use Of Violence/Detentions At Jantar Mantar;
Journalists On Ground Contradict Police Version
BOOM reached out to Neeraj Jha, Editor of Molitics, who was detained by Delhi Police during the protest. Jha said he saw police assault protesters, during which his cameraperson got injured, and alleged that officers later pushed him into a police van and took him to Burari police station.
“I began recording on my phone. Although I identified myself as a journalist, police officers tried to manhandle me. Two officers later pushed me, shoved me into a van and took me away,” Jha told BOOM.
Jha was picked up near Krishi Bhavan at around 2.30 pm and first taken to Burari police station. He was later moved to Chhatrasal Stadium.
BOOM's Jagriti Trisha was also present near the protest site at Jantar Mantar and witnessed police action. "There were multiple layers of barricades and a heavy deployment of the Rapid Action Force and Delhi Police on the roads leading to the protest site. We spoke to several protesters who said they had been lathi-charged. Many had visible leg injuries, some had torn toenails, while others had sustained head injuries,” she said.
DECODE's Hera Rizwan also spoke to an SSC aspirant from Rohini who said he was caught in repeated rounds of lathi-charge without any warning or clear instructions from the police.
Videos Show Police Action Against Protesters
BOOM reviewed multiple videos from the protest showing police personnel lathi-charging protesters, including women and minors.
Trigger warning: The following videos contain disturbing visuals and abusive language.
With inputs: Jagriti Trisha, BOOM Hindi