'I will prefer to be killed than telling a lie,' says Indian national Lagan Rai after his release

PATNA/SITAMARHI: The senior officials of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Sitamarhi district administration heaved a sigh of relief after an Indian citizen, Ram Lagan Rai alias Lagan Rai, who was detained by the Armed Police Force (APF) of Nepal on Friday following incident of clashes and police firing, was released on Saturday.
Rai (45) returned to his native village Jankinagar under Sonbarsa police station in Sitamarhi district. The family members as well as some local residents had assembled near the India-Nepal border and started a dharna ever since Rai was taken into custody by the APF personnel on Friday morning. The protesters shouted anti-Nepal government slogans.
Inspector General (IG), SSB, frontier headquarters, Sanjay Kumar confirmed the safe release of the Indian national by the security personnel of Nepal. “Minor incidents of clashes do happen on the border from both sides and subsequently they were sorted out. And Friday’s incident was not an exception. It was a related to a local issue and had nothing to do with any dispute over territory between the two neighbouring countries,” he added.
Notably, a 25-year-old youth Vikesh Kumar, stated to be a migrant worker of Jankinagar under Pipra Parsaini panchayat in Sitamarhi district, was killed and two others were injured in the police firing by the APF personnel inside Nepal territory at Sarlahi. The condition of the two injured—Udai Thakur (27) and Umesh Ram (20)--was stated to be out of danger.
Earlier recalling his horrifying tale of police intimidation and brutality, Lagan Rai said that he was physically and mentally harassed by the APF personnel to confess that he was taken into custody from an area falling in Nepal. However, he didn’t budge to their pressure and candidly told them that ‘I will prefer to be killed than telling a lie.’
Narrating the incident Rai, a labourer, said that he rushed towards Indian territory following the firing by the APF personnel on a group of people, who had gone inside Nepal territory to meet some relatives living there. “But the APF personnel assaulted me with rifle butts and dragged me inside Nepal territory. Thereafter I was taken to Sangrampur where the security personnel tortured me,” Rai said.
Rai also showed injury marks on his back. “Friday;s incident has shaken me from within. The people of the two nations have cordial relations since ages. People from both sides crossed the porous border for agriculture work. I have been doing this since childhood. But we never faced such a situation on earlier occasions,” he revealed.
Rai’s daughter in-law Anchla Devi is a native of Nepal. She had come to meet her husband, father in-law and mother in-law near the border on Friday morning. The Nepalese troupe objected to it due to lockdown enforced in that country till June 14. This led to heated argument and resulted in clashes and police firing.
IG, SSB, Kumar also admitted that there was some kind of ‘Beti Roti Ka Sambandh’ among the citizens of the two nations. “The officials of the district administration are probing into the incident, which left one Indian civilian killed and two others wounded. We have intensified vigil on the border as a precautionary measure,” he said.
The Indian civilian, who was detained following the firing by Nepal police on Friday, was set free after a dialogue between the officials of the two nations. While Sitamarhi SP Anil Kumar along with SSB officials led the Indian team, DIG of Nepal, Raj Aaryal headed the group of officials from Nepal. The last rites of the deceased, Vikesh Kumar, was conducted only after the APF relented and set the detainee free unconditionally, a senior police officer said.
Sources said that Vikesh, a migrant worker, had returned to his native village in Sitamarhi from Ludhiana in Punjab following the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid19. “He returned home in the hope that he will not die of hunger in alien land (read Ludhiana) and somehow survive. But destiny had willed otherwise,” said a close relative Raju Kumar.