![\"Chased](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-47529300,imgsize-110164,width-400,height-225,resizemode-75\/47529300.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nNew Delhi: <\/span>Nine days after violence broke out during the student protests in Delhi on July 20, Vinita, a 25-year-old constable, lies in her bed, recovering from severe head trauma. Stitches line her scalp, where a brick hit her, while she was on crowd-control duty near Janpath Metro station.Posted with the social media cell in the DCP office of South East district, Vinita was deployed on the ground that afternoon along with her colleagues to manage a swelling throng. \u201cOur primary mandate was crowd control and clearing the main road,\u201d she tells TOI<\/span>. \u201cWe were directing the protesters into the metro station to clear the traffic on the road.\u201dBy 5pm, the situation appeared to have stabilised as most of the crowd was shepherded into the station. \u201cThere was a brief moment when we thought the worst was over,\u201d she recalls.\u201cI had relaxed for barely two minutes when the calm was shattered,\u201d Vinita says. A mob armed with stones and bricks, which she claims were concealed in bags, suddenly charged out from behind the entrance of the metro station.\u201cWe started falling back, but the mob continued chasing us,\u201d she tells TOI<\/span>. \u201cI ran for my life, but they were after me. I turned to look back, and that\u2019s when the brick hit my head.\u201d Blindsided and dizzy, Vinita initially did not realise the severity of her injury. \u201cFor quite some time, I couldn\u2019t see or feel the full extent of it,\u201d she says.Desperate to survive the hail of bricks and stones, an injured Vinita staggered through the chaos, before crawling towards the gate of the first private office she could spot. Once inside the compound, a security guard rushed to assist her, applying thick cloth compresses to her head. However, the deep laceration bled so profusely that the cloth was drenched through twice within minutes.As violence raged outside, Vinita tried calling her team, only to find there was no mobile connectivity as jammers cut off the signal. Left with no way to contact her colleagues, she pleaded with the security guard, \u201cPlease locate anyone from my team; I need to get to a hospital immediately.\u201dAfter an agonising wait, her colleagues eventually located her and took her by ambulance to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, where doctors administered multiple stitches to close the wound.\u201cI don\u2019t know how I made it out alive,\u201d says Vinita, who is recovering under the care of her family. \u201cI am waiting to heal before returning to the line of duty,\u201d she says, scarred, but not scared.<\/div>\n