Amid the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest in Delhi, a name has surfaced online – Rapid Action Force (RAF) officer Sonia Sehrawat, who was present at Jantar Mantar on the day of the Parliament march on July 20.
Event Context
She found herself at the centre of a controversy over an Instagram story she purportedly posted a day after the march. A screenshot of that story, which appears to insult the protesters, has since gone viral.
In what reports say is a now-deleted post, Sehrawat had posted a short reel on her Instagram story that read, “Can’t fix themselves and they wanna fix the country.”
Sehrawat further claimed that she and several RAF personnel were also injured during the confrontation. “When I fell to the ground, stones and shoes were being thrown at me. They even took off my helmet,” she said.
Player Focus
The post also invited criticism from TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who shared the screenshot of the story on X, saying, “RAF assistant commandant Sonia Shehrawat’s insta profile calling our children protestors cockroaches. Let’s find out who she is, where she lives, what’s her record? Let’s name & shame & drag each of these zealots through the law.”
On July 20, the day of the CJP’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, party founder Abhijeet Dipke publicly questioned Sehrawat over allegations that RAF personnel had used excessive force against protesters, including women.
Standing atop a lorry, Dipke addressed the officer directly, saying, “Ma’am, as a woman, I want to know… Do you support brutality against women being done by men?”
She further explained, “when the crowd was pushed from behind, the boys could run away, but the girls could not. There was even a 12-year-old girl there. What was a 12-year-old doing at the protest without any assistance? Our priority was to save the young girls. We are not the enemies, and we are not goons,” she said.
Asked whether Dipke’s remarks about her being a woman and a mother had affected her emotionally, Sehrawat declined to comment.
“Those are personal comments. I will not speak about them,” she said, adding that the crowd had also verbally abused the security personnel. “They kept calling us goons and hurling abuses at us.”
“We are here to protect you, and you don’t want to be protected, so what can I do?,” she said, adding that she herself got injured while saving women protestors during the protest.
Sehrawat is an Assistant Commandant in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), serving with the Rapid Action Force (RAF). She is active on Instagram, where she has over 621,000 followers (6.21 lakh).
Her account mostly features posts about her personal life, dance videos, trending reels, fitness content, and occasional glimpses of life in uniform.
Team Analysis
Referring to a woman protester who alleged that she had been assaulted by security personnel from her team, Dipke said, “This girl said she was assaulted and hit on her chest. What is this? Is this right, ma’am?”
Sehrawat was standing opposite Dipke along with her team when the exchange took place.
Despite his criticism of the police action, Dipke also praised Sehrawat for listening to him calmly and patiently. “I’ve been here at the protest site for over a month, but no police officer has listened to me the way ma’am has. I want to share my feelings with ma’am. Do you know, everyone here is upset with me for not continuing the march? But I am ready to live with that blame because I would not have been able to live with myself had anything happened to these students,” he said.
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When asked about Abhijeet Dipke’s allegations, Sehrawat told Hindustan Times that the RAF personnel under her command neither intentionally nor unintentionally assaulted any protesters. “It was not done by my jawans, neither intentionally nor unintentionally. They are manned and trained to save women,” she said.
Describing what transpired during the protest, Sehrawat said she repeatedly appealed to demonstrators to maintain distance and avoid crowding.
“When chaos erupted, I urged and requested everyone to maintain distance and not stand too close. However, the protesters brought the women to the front while they themselves stayed behind. I don’t know what their motive was. How much can we say?” she told HT.
Explaining the incident further, Sehrawat said three women fell after the crowd surged from behind, resulting in a stampede-like situation. “When people were pushed from behind, three girls fell in the front. My jawans did not hurt them – I can guarantee you that. They were injured in a stampede-like situation,” she added.
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She further alleged that one of the jawans was dragged into the crowd. “How much can anyone tolerate? If a government employee is subjected to mob lynching, that is not acceptable. We have to act in self-defence,” she added.
Match Outlook
HT could not independently verify the post.
The alleged post sparked sharp criticism from CJP, which accused Sehrawat of mocking the protesters and justifying what it described as the “brutality” of the security forces.
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Calling it “absolutely shocking,” the CJP said in a post on X, “This RAF official actually sees the peaceful protesters as cockroaches and thinks that the brutality of the police was justified because of that. But you see, we are cockroaches. And cockroaches never die.”
