New Delhi, July 29 -- At least two rounds of pellets were used on July 20 on the orders of a deputy commissioner of the Delhi Police, according to the statement of a deputy commander of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) recorded in a general diary entry at the Parliament Street police station. The diary entry - filed at 1.24am on July 22 by a Delhi Police sub-inspector and seen by HT - is the first document that shows the usage of pellets during a sprawling student march to Parliament on July 20. "...Dated 20/07/2026 DC Satish Kumar Sangwan deputy commander B 108 RAF sahab came to the DO office and said that [he] was on duty with Zone 1 Jantar Mantar DCP North Raja Bhatiya on whose orders Non Electrical shell - 55, Electrical - 15, Tear Smoke Grenades - 5, ARG - 2 BC, 2PP were used to curb the crowd during the CJP protest," read the general diary entry in Hindi, with numbered 0008A, carrying the signature of the sub-inspector and the seal of the Parliament Street police station. ARG stands for anti-riot gun, BC is ballistic cartridges and PP is plastic pellets. RAF is a specialised unit within the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed to handle riots and other public disturbances across the country. CRPF has already instituted an inquiry into the allegations. To be sure, the DCP North is Raja Banthia. He was unavailable for comment. Both Delhi Police and CRPF refused to comment on the record. Plastic pellets are different from metal pellets and are intended to cause less serious injuries. Metallic pellets have controversially been used in Jammu and Kashmir HT has reported that five people - Sheikh Irshad Mansuri, a 25-year-old employee with a private firm, Nootan Toppo, a 32-year-old woman from Gurugram, a 28-year-old reporter, Prashant Singh, a 25-year-old Bihar resident, and 19-year-old Sahil Lochab, a student aspiring to join the police force - have alleged (in Lochab's case the allegations were made by the family) that they were hit with pellets on July 20. Banthia told the police brass that he was not present in the outer circle of Connaught Place or Jantar Mantar area when the incident occurred, according to people aware of the matter. Delhi Police is conducting an internal inquiry. According to information gathered so far in the police's internal probe, at least two other DCP-rank officers, called from other districts, were assigned to different CRPF teams in the vicinity of Connaught Place on July 20, said the people cited above. "During the preliminary internal probe, the DCP named in the report claimed he was posted in Patel Chowk, a stretch of Ashoka Road near the metro station, and in front of the Gol Dak Khana that afternoon. He said his location was away from the Outer Circle area near Pallika Bazar Gandhi Chakra, where other DCP-rank officers were present along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel on the afternoon of July 20, 2026. The DCP also told his seniors that the CRPF's deputy commandant (DC) filed the GD entry as an afterthought almost two days after the violence," an official aware of the matter said. A second officer confirmed that the Delhi Police commissioner Anurag Kumar asked officers from Delhi Zone 1 to probe and file a report on the matter....