Kathmandu, March 31

Police have arrested a man on the charge of killing his 23-year-old wife for allegedly having extramarital affair.

Prakash Tamang, 21, of Belkotgadhi-7, Nuwakot was nabbed from his cousin’s house in Galchhi of Dhading today. Metropolitan Police Crime Division had launched an all-out investigation after Namuna Lama was found dead with multiple knife injuries in her elder sister’s rented room in Naikap, Kathmandu, yesterday.

Namuna had been living with his sister for the past one-and-a-half months as she could not bear the physical and mental torture meted out to her by Prakash.

Superintendent of Police Narendra Prasad Upreti said the couple were married for six years. “Their relationship started falling apart within six months of the marriage as they suspected each other’s fidelity to marital commitments,” he informed.

According to MPCD, growing mistrust with Namuna led Prakash into murdering his wife. He went to meet Namuna in her sister’s room at around 4:00pm yesterday when she was alone and had a tiff over the same old issue before stabbing her to death. He had repeatedly hit Namuna with a kitchen knife in the stomach and back.

After killing his wife, he boarded a bus to go to his cousin’s house in Galchhi of Dhading. Prakash, a labourer, has admitted to killing her. Police said he would be produced in Kathmandu District Court tomorrow for his judicial remand.

If statistics released by Metropolitan Police Office are any indication, murder cases are increasing at an alarming rate in Kathmandu Valley.

As many as 36 murder cases have been reported over a period of eight months (mid-July to mid-March) of the running fiscal compared to 25 during the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Most of the murder victims and perpetrators were daily wage-earners and labourers. Animosity, jealousy and vengeance, monetary greed, and dispute over mutual distrust were the leading cause behind murders reported in the valley. Police said all perpetrators of the reported murder cases were booked.