‘It Is My Duty, I Had To Do It’: Defiant Policeman Who Faced Rioter Shahrukh And His Pistol With His Lathi 

Earlier this week, a picture of an unarmed Delhi Police personnel who had come face to face with a pistol holding rioter in North East Delhi, became viral.

In the picture, the rioter can be seen pointing a pistol on the policeman, who stands his ground — defiant and courageous. Videos of this incident arising from the violent anti-CAA protests became viral.

One of the videos shows the policeman point his lathi at the rioter.

The man in khakhi is Delhi police head constable Deepak Dahiya. He comes from a family of men in uniform.

In this report, Dahiya says that a cop is trained for such situations and that he is ‘trained to put the lives of civilians above his own.’

Here is how Dahiya, who was ‘deployed at Maujpur Chowk’ explains those moments. According to him, the man with the pistol was charging ahead.

He adds that what he was doing at that moment was his job and the job had to be done. “Kaam hain mera, karna hi hai. (It is my job and I had to do it)”.

In Dahiya's account in the report, he says that the clashes took ‘an extremely violent turn’.  He says, ‘People started pelting stones at each other. As I moved towards the scene of violence, I heard a gunshot. I saw a man wearing a red sweatshirt... he was wielding a pistol. I immediately jumped to the other carriageway to divert his attention.”

According to this report, the man who opened fire in front of the policeman (Dahiya himself) was later identified Shahrukh — said to be a resident of Delhi's Shahdara area.

As per Dahiya, his family in Haryana's Sonepat district was not aware of the incident. He chose to not tell them about it. But they found out — thanks to the picture which made it to prominent newspapers.

Though his face is not visible in the picture, the blue striped upper he was wearing underneath the jacket caught his wife's attention.

He adds, “My wife called me up all worried. I tried to dodge her questions, but even though my face wasn’t visible in the photographs, she recognised me from the blue stripes on the jacket... I kept quiet as I know that she has full confidence in me.”

Dahiya's father is retired from Indian Coast Guard and his two younger brothers serve the Delhi Police and the Coast Guard.

He says that had anyone died in front of him, he would have been in pain forever. He adds, “Agar mere saamne koi mar jaata, toh bahut dukh hota hamesha. (had anyone died in front of me, it would have hurt me forever)”.