The Police in Lagos State have arrested 27-year-old Sandra for battering
her Indian lover. The Indian, simply identified as Jagan, 23, wept as
he fielded questions from detectives attached to the Domestic Violence
Unit of the Festac Police Station.
Jagan has a plastered elbow,
blackened right eye and was limping. He said his chest was also hurting
him. According to him, Sandra gave him the black eye.
He
sustained the elbow, leg and chest injuries after he fell off a
commercial motorbike. He however alleged that his fall wasn’t an
accident. He explained that a man, who had been tailing him since Sandra
“threatened to deal” with him used a motorbike to ram into the back of
his. He and his rider fell down, leading to him sustaining the injuries.
The
cyclist, who knocked him down bolted. Jagan felt the man who knocked
him down was hired by Sandra to harm him. Sandra denied sending anyone
after Jagan.
Jagan reported Sandra to the police on February 27,
2016, for battering and threat to life. The lovers had already done the
traditional marriage introduction, with the proper wedding slated for
February 2016, when trouble started. Police said they may have to charge
Sandra with assault, occasioning harm.
But Jagan said he was not
interested in going to court. He said he was leaving Nigeria for
Indian. Choking on his tears, he said: “I now understand everything.
Sandra
has gotten all she wants from me. I’m broke. She doesn’t want me
anymore. ” Jagan said he reported Sandra to the police because she was
threatening his life.
He said it was after Sandra threatened to
deal with him, that he had the ‘life threatening accident,’ on
motorbike. He further explained that he wanted the police to compel
Sandra to write an undertaking that she wouldn’t hurt him in anyway.
Revealing
the genesis of their trouble, Jagan said he met Sandra at Trade Fair
International Market. She’s a trader. They got chatting and later
started dating. Jagan was working with an Indian Company back then.
The
lovers soon started discussing marriage. According to him, he rented an
apartment for her and handed over his Automatic Teller Machine (ATM),
card to her, as proof of his love.
One day, he received a
letter from his company; the letter was a transfer to Kano State. The
lovers discussed and agreed that Jagan shouldn’t move to Kano.
Moreover,
they were both worried about the Boko Haram heat. The Indian said: “I
refused the transfer because I wanted to be with her.
I resigned
and started my own business. I rented a bedroom apartment for her. I
travelled to Indian and came back. I had nobody, but her. But she goes
out and returns late at night.
She was endangering my life. I
don’t want to say what I suspected she was doing. But when I got
information that she was in a hotel, I went there to confirm things for
myself. And I saw her.”
When Jagan got to that part of the story,
he started weeping again. Sandra, who glanced at him with scorn, said
that when Jagan came into the hotel room, he sat by her bed, knelt down
by her side and started crying.
According to her, Jagan then
attempted to strangle her to death. Before they reached the stage where
Jagan went to confront Sandra in the hotel, the lovers had had series of
quarrels and fights.
After Jagan returned from Indian, he moved
in with Sandra. It was while living with her that he discovered she was a
night crawler.
He didn’t like it. He told her that a woman
should be hidden, not given to flaunting herself. Sandra accused him of
being too jealous and possessive.
She said: “He said I should be
like Indian women. But I don’t want to be like Indian women. He wants me
to be covering myself, I can’t. Whenever I speak with anybody, he gets
angry. I can’t live that way!”
The lovers started fighting. Jagan
even accused Sandra of using hammer to hit him during one of their
fights. After one of their numerous quarrels, Sandra threw Jagan’s
things out of the apartment.
The apartment was rented in Sandra’s
name. Jagan moved into a hotel. His new found business had already
started to crumble. Just when Jagan was getting his life straightened
out, he received a cry for help text message from Sandra. He said:
“Sandra said she was sick. She said if she didn’t see me, she would die.
I ran to see her.”
The reunion didn’t last long. They started
fighting again, with Sandra accusing Jagan of stealing her Ipad. Jagan,
whom police said found it hard to tell lies, confessed to have once
destroyed her SIM card, but denied stealing her Ipad. Remembering the
hotel incident, Jagan said: “I went to the hotel to confirm what I had
been hearing. It was true.
I slapped her neck. My finger injured
her. I didn’t try to strangle her. She was toying with my life. Today, I
regret leaving my company because of her.”
He further recounted
that he was going to the same hotel a few days later to have a drink,
when Sandra ran out, armed with bottle and attacked him. She tore his
clothes. He said: “She was armed with a bottle; she held and started
dragging me. She wanted to kill me. I called the police. I later noticed
a guy following me.
I don’t have anybody in Nigeria. If I die
here, I’ll die for nothing. The guy caused my accident. He used a
motorbike to knock into the one I hired. I and my motorbike rider fell. I
almost died.”
Jagan, who was known to Sandra’s family, said her
parents were not in support of her actions. Jagan said that Sandra only
wanted him because of his money and when she realized he was broke, she
ended the relationship.
Sandra said: “He called police for me because I told him that I didn’t want the relationship anymore.”
She
said that even after she told him that it was all over between them,
Jagan traced her to the hotel, where she had gone to lodge. Sandra
recounted: “He came into the hotel, sat on the bed and started crying.
He grabbed my neck and tried to strangle me. I struggled with him. He wanted to kill me. I screamed. People came to save me.
We’re supposed to go for court wedding, but I don’t want him anymore.
We started dating a year ago. He’s too jealous. He said I shouldn’t
speak with anyone, including women.
He said he wanted me to be a proper Indian woman.”