Amnesty International says Indian police used excessive force against protesters

Amnesty International said on Monday that Indian police used excessive force, including electric shock devices and pellet-firing shotguns, against youth-led protests that led to the resignation of the education minister last month.

The rights group's findings contradict the police account that force was used only after demonstrators turned violent. The report comes after India's Supreme Court set up a panel on Thursday to investigate violence committed by both police and protesters.

The demonstrations in New Delhi, sparked by a leak of the national medical entrance exam, escalated on 20 July when thousands of protesters attempted to march on parliament. Amnesty said verified witness testimony and visual evidence confirmed the use of pellet-firing shotguns, tear gas launchers, grenades, batons and electric shock devices against protesters in Delhi and the eastern state of Bihar.

The organisation also verified two instances of a police officer unlawfully using lethal force against a crowd in Bihar's Siwan district, though no one was killed. Amnesty said the weapons were deployed in ways that breached international law and domestic policing guidelines, and that despite isolated incidents of stone-throwing by protesters, the heavy-handed response amounted to state-sanctioned violence disguised as crowd control.

Delhi Police told the Supreme Court last week that force was used only after protesters resorted to violence, blaming what they called anti-social elements posing as aggrieved students for injuries to security forces.

On Friday, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi held a sit-in outside a Delhi police station alongside a 19-year-old protester who said he was injured by pellets during the July demonstrations, demanding a formal investigation; a case was subsequently registered.

The protests, led by the online movement Cockroach Janta Party, grew from anger over exam irregularities into a broader movement over unemployment and opportunities for young people, as well as criticism of what opponents call Prime Minister Narendra Modi's increasingly authoritarian rule. The unrest has become the biggest challenge Modi has faced since winning a third term in 2024.