Fresh FIR filed over July 20 CJP protest violence

The Delhi Police Crime Branch has registered a fresh FIR to investigate the violence that erupted during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest in the national capital on July 20, police sources said Thursday. The case, lodged against unidentified persons, will examine whether the clashes were premeditated and will seek to identify those allegedly responsible for assaults on police personnel, vandalism and damage to public property.

The FIR, registered at the Crime Branch headquarters and numbered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), invokes provisions relating to rioting, unlawful assembly, assault or use of criminal force against a public servant, disobedience of lawful orders, obstruction of public servants, criminal conspiracy and damage to public property.

Sources said the complaint was based on statements of injured personnel, CCTV and body-worn camera footage, and reports from local police stations in the New Delhi district. Investigators will also determine whether criminal elements entered the protest sites after CJP called for a march towards Parliament that day.

The development comes two days before another CJP protest announced for Jantar Mantar, this time demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. A senior police officer said permission has not been granted for the gathering and that prohibitory orders remain in force in the area.

Following Supreme Court orders, Delhi Police cancelled 17 FIRs filed at several police stations in New Delhi related to the July protest. The Crime Branch is running a separate investigation. Their focus is on how the violence unfolded, who was in charge at the protest site, and identifying people who attacked police or damaged vehicles.

Police said the July 20 violence involved alleged stone-pelting, attempts to breach barricades, and damage to police vehicles and other public property after protesters tried to march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament. More than a hundred police personnel were reported injured in the broader clashes that followed over subsequent days. Protesters, for their part, alleged that police used excessive force, including lathi charges, to disperse the crowd.

A key strand of the investigation concerns 2,873 people with criminal backgrounds whom police said the Facial Recognition System identified during the protest. The Crime Branch will examine their role, including whether any of them were among those who assaulted officers or vandalised property after the call for the Parliament march. Police also said the facial recognition system’s accuracy in this exercise was about 50 per cent. Police would corroborate those matches with other evidence before taking further action.

Sources said investigators have begun gathering video footage from the protest stage, nearby roads, and intersections to piece together when the first clashes began and to identify any speakers or organisers whose comments may have preceded the violence. They will also look into whether the march was organised in a way that expected a confrontation with security forces.

CJP, which describes itself as a satirical online movement that later took to the streets, has previously maintained that its demonstrations were peaceful.

That responsibility for the clashes lay with the police response. The party has not immediately commented on the new Crime Branch FIR. With another protest planned and permission withheld, police said they would deploy additional force around Jantar Mantar and approach roads to prevent a repeat of the July 20 scenes.