Rajbiraj, April 7

Family members of the five persons who died in police firing in Saptari about a month ago have refused to receive the state-pledged relief of Rs 10 lakh.

The family members said they refused the relief because the district administration had neglected an agreement reached with them earlier.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi was scheduled to hand over the relief amount to the families tomorrow.

According to central member of the Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, Shailendra Prasad Sah, a programme was scheduled for tomorrow where Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi was to hand over the relief amount to the families.

“Chief District Officer Krishna Bahadur Katawal had asked for our help on this regard, and we had talked to the families today, but they simply refused to receive the amount,” he said.

Five persons — Sanjan Mehata, 26, and Birendra Mahato, 37, of Maleth-2, Pitambar Mandal, 50, of Maleth-4, Ananda Kumar Sah, 38, of Prasawani-4, and Indradev Yadav, 57, of Jamuni Madhepura-1 — died in police firing during a clash between the police and United Democratic Madheshi Front cadres who were protesting a CPN-UML programme during the party’s Mechi-Mahakali national campaign at Rajbiraj-based Gajendra Narayan Singh Industrial Estate on March 6.

Following the incident, the kin of the deceased had agreed to receive the dead bodies after an agreement with the administration that the deceased would be declared martyrs, the concerned families would get compensation, and a judicial commission would be formed in a fortnight in order to investigate the incident and take action against the guilty. “But the demands have yet to be fulfilled,” said Sah.

CDO Katawal, on his part, confirmed the postponement of tomorrow’s programme, but attributed it to some ‘special’ reason.