Twenty-one-year-old Saouhum Sharma, a 4th-year History honours student at Hans Raj College, joined the October 12 rally led by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to the Supreme Court. By the end of the day, a knife had been slashed across his throat.
The Assault
Sharma and three friends met at Barakhamba Road at 2 pm. They subsequently met more friends and made their way to Mandi House.
“It wasn’t too chaotic at first,” he told Alt News. “We got the call from some Indian Youth Congress (IYC) people who were leading the protest around the area that Rahul Gandhi and everyone was reaching the Supreme Court; we should also reach the Supreme Court. The route from Mandi House to the Supreme Court is a straight road. So we decided to just start walking there. It was two groups of IYC workers and us.”
By 5.40 pm, the group had made some headway towards the Supreme Court when they encountered police barricades. “Some of the IYC people tried to topple the barricades but could not. So we went through a cut onto Sikandra Road.”
As they walked along Sikandra Road, they came across around 15 men standing beside a jeep. Sharma said some appeared to be Hindutva workers, based on what they were wearing.
“They were donning some markers of Hindutva workers. A couple of ‘gamchas’, one in a saffron-coloured T-shirt. Nothing overt, but definitely visible,” he said.
Initially, the men were provocative rather than violent, Sharma recalled. “They were whistling at the female IYC workers — whistling and calling after them. They called a few of them ‘chikni’. They were calling them while standing 20 metres ahead on the side of the road; arms around each other’s shoulders. From afar, they did not look like they would interfere because we outnumbered them. So we didn’t really think of turning back.”
However, as the group approached, the men began taking saffron flags with long poles out of the jeep. “They still weren’t exactly being violent, just provocative.”
Asked whether the men identified themselves as members of any organisation, Sharma said they did not. The flags, too, did not name any organisation, he said. They were generic saffron flags bearing images of an angry Hanuman or the Ram Mandir.
“The men decided to swing the poles, and the IYC workers got a bit agitated, and a bit of a brawl ensued between them; the IYC workers got into an argument with the goons,” Sharma said.
Amid the confrontation, a young man, whom Sharma estimated to be 18 or 19, entered their group. He was not wearing any of the visible markers that Sharma had associated with the men beside the jeep.
“Then this one guy, he was probably 18-19 years old, made his way inside our group. He wasn’t wearing any of those identifiable markers. So we couldn’t tell that he was from the other group. He stood beside me for about five seconds and then… it happened quite quickly.”
“He pulled out a barber’s knife. My friend saw it and dragged me towards herself at which point he swung the blade. He missed my face, and it grazed my neck. He walked away after that.”
Sharma said it took him some time to realise what had happened. “I felt a sting in my neck and realised I was bleeding. At that point, we walked away from the group and decided to head home.”
Encounter with Police
After walking around 500 metres from the spot of the assault, Sharma and his friends encountered a police official on Sikandra Marg, who spotted the blood on Sharma and called out to them.
“He was drinking chai by a police vehicle, wearing a light green vest. There wasn’t a lot of police presence at that point, as we were a little far from the protest site. He offered to give us a ride after he saw the blood,” Sharma said.
As the group considered the offer, the officer turned to the driver seated in the vehicle and asked him to detain them, Sharma alleged. “We got scared, turned him down and left. He insisted at first but didn’t follow us when we left. We immediately left the vicinity of the protest site, went to the Jama Masjid metro station and left.”
According to Sharma, the police official was not wearing a name tag.
“Thankfully, the cut wasn’t that deep as he missed my face and the knife only grazed my neck. After returning, I cleaned the wound a bit and then got a tetanus shot,” he said.
