The protest on July 20 was not the first one I have attended – but in all the protests I attended in the past, never had I witnessed police brutality so closely.I reached Jantar Mantar around 9 am with my friends. We had all read reports of tear gas and heavy police deployment a day before the protest, and were actually surprised when we were able to enter the site so easily.Around 12 pm, we were waiting for our friends at what looked like a government building as they got water from the building’s water cooler. That’s when we saw two policemen charging at people who were peacefully filling water. The crowd immediately started running. It took us a while to process what had happened – that the police were actually charging at people who had simply been standing there and filling water.As we ran, one of my shoes came off, but we did not stop. I remember my friend, who was holding my hand, screaming, “Ye maar rahe hain sabko (They are hitting everyone).”After things had calmed down a little, we went back looking for my shoe. As I put it back on and was documenting the number of shoes lying scattered on the ground, someone from the crowd came to me and said that there was a girl lying unconscious and that there were no women around to attend to her. They asked me if I could help.When I got back near the water cooler, I saw this young woman (whom I now know to be 21-year-old Sakshi but then thought must be a teenager) had been carried in there and was lying unconscious. Her face had turned blue, her eyes were swollen, and I noticed blood near one side of her ear. People around me had held a police officer and weren’t letting him go, they were saying this policeman is responsible for her condition.The fellow protesters asked me to perform CPR. They guided me through it and my friend joined me to help. There were others who kept rubbing her feet in an attempt to revive her.When CPR did not seem to be working, someone suggested giving mouth-to-mouth breathing. One person from the crowd closed her nose while I tried to breathe air into her mouth. We noticed some movement in her head which gave us some hope that she might respond.While we were trying to revive her, the people around us discussed how to get her to a hospital. The policeman who had been stopped by the crowd asked us to take her to an ambulance, but none of us knew where one was. Someone then suggested taking her outside to look for a vehicle.People came together and we lifted her while trying to keep her neck straight. As we carried her out, someone told me, “Ma’am, ye ladki bahot serious hai. Isko police ki gaadi mein bhejenge toh ye baat daba denge (Ma’am, this girl is very serious. If we send her in the police van, they will hide this whole incident).”I felt we had no other option, so I started recording a video of her being taken towards the road.As we walked, one of the protesters suggested that I use the scarf I had tied around my jeans (which I had wrapped to cover period stains) to cover Sakshi, because a part of her body was exposed while she was being carried through the crowd. I put the scarf over her. Looking back, I am surprised by this man’s thoughtfulness in the middle of so much chaos.When we reached the road, only police vehicles were parked there. We repeatedly requested the policemen to take her to the nearest hospital. One policeman sitting inside a vehicle told us to take her to another police car instead. All of us were angered and confused at this complete lack of urgency and empathy. Eventually, another policeman allowed the two protesters carrying her to get into the vehicle with her, and they drove towards the hospital.Later in the evening, when I reached a network zone area, I shared the video of the incident with The Wire in the hope that it would help identify her and reach her family. By then, many others had also documented the incident and shared it online.The next day, I came across multiple reports that a young protester named Sakshi had been admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in critical condition. I hoped it was not the same girl we had tried to help. Unfortunately, it was.On July 21, I went to RML Hospital with my friends to inquire about her condition. At the reception, we were told to go to the police station inside the hospital because several protesters had been admitted and the reception did not have their records.With the help of some kind people at the hospital, we eventually reached the ICU where Sakshi had been admitted. The guards told us that neither her family nor any doctor was available to speak to us. After some persuasion, one of the staff members told us that her condition remained the same as when she had been brought in, but said they could not share any further details.The following day, when we returned, there were around three police officers standing inside the ICU entrance along with hospital staff and some men who appeared to be police personnel in civilian clothes. They seemed really suspicious of us. When we tried speaking to Sakshi’s sister, she told us that Sakshi was being taken for an MRI and that she would speak to us afterwards.While we waited outside, we tried reaching Sakshi’s brother through one of the guards, but he refused to speak with us.A family member of another patient admitted in the ICU told us that, according to what they had heard, Sakshi “seemed fine”.After an hour of waiting, we found out that Sakshi and her family members had been taken to the MRI area through another entrance. When we reached the MRI room, we saw the same group of men, along with additional hospital security.When we returned to the ICU, one of the staff members told us that we could no longer wait there. He said that Sakshi’s sister and brother “had already left”, that only her father was inside with her, that he was not willing to speak with us, and that no doctor was available to speak either.Several reports have come out regarding how Sakshi sustained her injuries. According to an eyewitness quoted by Outlook, she was caught in a crush of protesters after police allegedly charged at students and pushed them towards an already overcrowded area, leaving several people trapped beneath others. The report also noted the possibility that she may have been struck on the neck by a lathi, although the eyewitness did not directly see this happen.The entire day left all of us shaken. It was only after I returned home and sat by myself that I could process everything that had happened. I realised how frightened, angry and sad I was. I called my sister and cried. I kept thinking about this young woman who was one amongst us, hoping she would recover. And as I searched for updates on how she was, I realised how there were so many more who had been seriously injured during the protest.Every time the police charged at protesters, we expected that we might be next to get hit.Yet, every time the police backed off, people gathered again. I was scared, and yet stood my ground, because there were so many courageous people around me. And I only hope this solidarity will not limit itself, and extend to all the communities and groups whose pain large sections of society have long remained indifferent to.Siddhi is a young professional based in Delhi.