NEW DELHI: Twenty-year-old Aaheli Bhattacharjee from Asansol sat near the stage at Jantar Mantar, the one dismantled Monday, her arms and legs wrapped in bandages. Barely able to make out the figures approaching her after losing her spectacles during the July 20 police action, she nevertheless returned to encourage fellow students.“My mother doesn’t know I’m injured. That day she video-called me 25 times, wondering where I was. I was with thousands of people demanding justice,” she said.At another corner sat Mohammad Naved, 21, a daily wage worker from east Delhi, who said he was badly beaten on the head while trying to save a girl from lathicharge. His parents believe he is at work, while his employer thinks he has gone home to be with his family. His phone was allegedly taken away by police that night, leaving him with no way to contact them. He has been at the site for the past three days.“My back is swollen, my leg is in plaster, but I’m not deterred. I’ll make myself useful to this movement in every way possible.” he said.Bhattacharjee and Naved are among several visibly injured protesters who have returned to Jantar Mantar, many staying away from their families and still without their phones, which they say remain in police custody. At the site, several volunteers are dressing wounds, distributing medicines and administering tetanus shots to prevent infections. One doctor, who identified himself only as “GK Ji”, was attending to Lav Kush Prajapati, 26, who alleged he was beaten twice on Monday. “They first beat me while I was following Dipke’s convoy. When my friends brought me to the protest stage, cops dismantled it,” he said.Lav Kush said he remained without medical help for three hours before being taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital. After receiving treatment, he returned to the site around 2am. His brother Chirag came to see him Tuesday, unbeknownst to their parents. “We can’t let our parents know he is here, or my mother will become anxious, and it would not serve my brother well either,” he told TOI.Many others also refused to remain in hospital, like 26-year-old Aniket Patil from Maharashtra’s Latur district, which emerged as an early focus of the NEET leak probe. Patil said he hadn’t told his grandmother, his sole caretaker, he was in Delhi when he, along with several friends, was lathicharged Monday. “The doctor kept telling me to rest, but I kept insisting until they finally discharged me. I’ve been here for three days, and volunteers keep dressing my wounds,” he said.CJP volunteers were also moving through the crowd, recording details of belongings that injured protesters said they had lost during the police action, including phones, bags and important documents. Naved was one of the many who was jotting down his name and things he lost on Monday night. “Phone jaane ka gham nahi hai, par main chahta hoon koi aur mere maa-baap ko mere baare mein bataye, use pehle wo mere se mera haal sun le (I’m not sad that I lost my phone, but I want my parents to hear from me first, instead of someone them telling about me.)”
