Rajsamand murder: In videos shot in jail, Regar says fellow prisoner wants to kill him

A screengrab of Shambhulal Regar, the main accused in the case. The victim Afrazul (inset) was hacked and burnt alive in Rajasthan.

Two videos that appear to be shot by Shambhulal Regar, who is lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail for allegedly murdering West Bengal labourer Mohammad Afrazul, have surfaced on the social media. An FIR has been lodged and a probe is underway to find out how Regar managed to film the videos inside the jail.

In the videos, which surfaced late on Sunday night, Regar is seen making communal statements and claimed that a fellow prisoner wanted to kill him. On December 6, Regar had murdered Afrazul, a migrant labourer from Malda, in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district. In a series of videos shot by his nephew, Regar was seen hacking Afrazul to death and then making communal statements.

In the latest videos, Regar is seen saying that this was his “last” message. “The jail administration has kept me in one of the most protected cells but still a person called Vasudev Brahman met me. Brahman is from West Bengal and is also a prisoner here. Slowly, he tried to befriend me and would criticise Islam and expressed his solidarity with me which made me suspicious,” Regar says in the video. He goes on to allege that Vasudev Brahman is not the man’s real identity.

“One day, at the time of defecation, I was shocked to see his circumcised private parts and realised he is not a Brahmin… This is the strength of jihadis who in spite of all protections managed to reach me and want to kill me,” Regar is seen claiming in the video.

Read | No country for Afrazul

Dressed in a jacket and equipped with earphones, he appears to be reading from a pre-written script in the videos. In a chargesheet filed in January, Rajsamand police had stated that Regar had an “illegitimate relationship” with the woman he referred to as his “Hindu sister” in videos.

In a second video allegedly shot inside the jail, Regar denies this and says he has no regrets for his actions, but that he “felt bad” that the law and the media portrayed him as one who had an “illicit relationship”. Jail superintendent Vikram Singh told The Indian Express that the mobile phone used to shoot the video hasn’t been recovered.

“He (Regar) is saying that he had used someone else’s mobile phone. There’s no truth in his allegations that his life is in danger. The other man he refers to is from West Bengal and is indeed a Brahmin. He was arrested for possessing opium,” said Singh. He added that preliminary investigation suggests the videos could have been filmed in a bathroom in the jail.

“Regar is currently being kept in a separate barrack. He did come to meet me a few days ago and said that he wanted to go to the general barrack. We are trying to find out that how he managed to get access to the phone and filmed the videos,” said Singh. An FIR was registered at Ratanada police station in Jodhpur in this regard on Monday.

“We have registered an FIR on the complaint of the jail superintendent and investigation is underway to know how the videos were filmed from inside the jail. The case has been registered under The Prisons (Rajasthan Amendment) Act, 2015 and the Information Technology Act,” said sub inspector Sharwan Kumar from Ratanada police station.

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