A PIL alleging excessive force by the Delhi Police during the Cockroach Janta Party’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ march was mentioned before the Delhi High Court for urgent listing on Tuesday (July 21, 2026). The Court refused to entertain the request immediately, remarking, “Don’t drag the Court into all this. It will come up tomorrow.”

CJP protest in Delhi LIVE: Dipke apologises to CJP supporters who were ‘brutally beaten’ by police

The police lathi-charged and dispersed protesters using tear gas in a crackdown against the CJP’s march to the Parliament in Delhi on Monday (July 20, 2026), leaving several people injured. At least 38 of the injured were taken to the Lady Hardinge Medical College and around 65 to the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, said sources, with fractures, swelling due to tear gas, and head and eye injuries.

Despite mobile internet was switched off throughout Central Delhi, visuals of the violent police crackdown against protesters flooded social media.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk announced on Monday (July 21, 2026) that he would continue his indefinite hunger strike, saying the police action against protesters during the march has prompted him to extend the fast.

In the first widespread communications blackout in Delhi since the farmers’ agitation in 2021, mobile internet was switched off throughout Central Delhi, even as demonstrators poured into Jantar Mantar and security forces were dispersing them with force. The shutdown impeded the flow of visuals from the area, including by media at the scene. Protesters and journalists alike resorted to nearby establishments’ WiFi hotspots.

Mobile internet shutdowns are an extraordinary step in controlling unrest and are overall on the decline in the last two years. The government’s decision to shut down mobile internet till the evening drew condemnation from the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC).

Delhi Police and other security personnel were outnumbered and taken aback by thousands of protesters who arrived in and around Jantar Mantar on Monday (July 20, 2026), a senior government official said. In an unprecedented turn of events, despite multiple layers of barricade, deployment of around 3,000 security personnel and an Internet shutdown, large crowds comprising mostly students and young people were able to reach the doorsteps of Parliament, before they were tear gassed and charged with batons.

The “leaderless” protesters faced little resistance from police as they marched from Jantar Mantar towards Raisina Marg, which leads to Parliament, The Hindu witnessed. All radials leading to the Parliament were teeming with protesters who brought down the barricades as they marched on, with the police using buses to block their movement, just 100 metres from the Parliament complex where the first day of the Monsoon session commenced on Monday (July 20).

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The crowd had gathered based on a call given by the online youth group, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), to march to Parliament demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradesh over the recent NEET(UG) examination leak. The forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from the dais at Jantar Mantar where he had been sitting on a hunger strike for 20 days, in an early morning operation on July 18, likely gave a fillip to the protest as hundreds of people started pouring in in solidarity.

Swelling protest

On Sunday (July 19) evening, after intelligence sources conveyed to the government that the numbers were growing at the protest site, the Union government through Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Sachin Sharma reached out to the CJP members for the first time. “The DCP approached us first on Sunday (July 19) evening, offering a meeting with the district magistrate. After we declined, this morning they offered talks with Minister of State (Independent Charge) and subsequently a Union Secretary. When we refused, the DCP asked us what we want to do. We said a delegation will meet a Union Cabinet Minister. Then they asked us to give a list of names of possible Ministers and that is how Health Minister J.P. Nadda met us,” said Saurav Das of the CJP.

Seeing the intensity of the protests and as the protesters reached Parliament, the Union government deputed Health Minister Mr. Nadda to engage with members of the CJP. Posting on X after the meeting, the Minister said: “This morning, for the first time, a proposal came from the protesters to hold talks with the government, and our discussions have been ongoing since 11.50 a.m. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere. An initial verbal discussion was held in detail with their delegation and they submitted a written petition around 4 p.m. I have requested all those protesting to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy.”

Within Parliament too, senior Ministers of the NDA government went into a huddle with one meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan lasting nearly three-and-a-half hours. No briefing was done post the meeting but it is assumed that issues with regard to the leak of NEET question papers and the resulting protests were discussed.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal too met with Mr. Shah for a short time, but it is not clear whether it was on the same issue.

A government official told The Hindu that clear directions were given to the police to not use force against the protesters. However, when they broke barricades and marched towards Parliament, police personnel first fired tear gas shells as warning shots and then batoncharged them, injuring several protesters and police officials.

The official added that a large number of people were mobilised to the venue by political parties such as Chandrashekhar Azaad’s Azaad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), Aam Aadmi Party, and the Samajwadi Party.

A large number of protesters came from outside Delhi, particularly the Shekhawati region in Rajasthan, the official said.

Nitish, a police aspirant, who arrived from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh on Monday (July 20) morning said: “Government should be held accountable for the paper leaks.” When asked how he could reach so close to Parliament and whether he was stopped by the police, Mr. Nitish said, “After the first barricade was breached, we just walked, no one stopped us.”