KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 12

Preliminary investigation has shown that Sudip Adhikari, 36, is behind the murder of his wife, 34, and his son,15.

Apparently, he killed them with a sharp domestic weapon and then poisoned himself and the family dog. The date of the event is, however, still unclear.

Police concluded that the man killed his family and himself due to failure to support his family and pay back huge amounts of loan taken from a bank and others as well as family disputes.

Last evening, Sudip’s younger brother Sunil Adhikari, 31, called the police saying that all his brother’s family members were dead inside his house at Nicosera of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, Bhaktapur.

Police found the body of Sudip’s son Sushant on his bed in the first floor. His wife’s body was found in the second floor and his body in the third floor.

Sushant had been struck three times on the head and his throat was slit. The wife had four deep cuts on her head. The walls of the boy’s room were covered with blood-stained hands as he struggled to survive. Samjhana was found covered in a pool of blood on the bed.

Sudip, however, had no sign of cuts on his body, but there were blood stains on his shirt.

Police also found the drug ‘celphus’ — a poison for killing mice.

“His body was reeking of celphus, which he had ground into a powder in the kitchen. It’s a clear sign he had poisoned himself,” Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar Thapa of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku, said, adding that he had also vomited after ingesting the poison. A packet of celphus was found in a field outside his house.

SSP Thapa also said there was no evidence a third person had entered the house at the Thimi-Bhaktapur Highway called Purano Bato, till today.

Police are awaiting the viscera and post-mortem report of the deceased. The body of the wife and son had already started decomposing by the time police arrived, while Sudip’s body was comparatively fresh.

Rishi Ram Subedi, DSP at Metropolitan Police Circle, Thimi, said, “He must have killed himself at least one day after killing his wife and son.”

It is said Sudip took the life of his family members after failing to handle family pressure.

Sudip who used to drink and gamble had been unemployed for at least one year and had loans to pay. He and his wife frequently quarrelled and he was under pressure from the family of his father-in-law to pay back Rs 200,000 that he had borrowed. Similarly, he owed Rs 2.385 million to Agricultural Development Bank Limited.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 13, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.