KATHMANDU: Tulasi Raj Tripathi, father of Subodh, who is presently in judicial custody in Darjeeling after being arrested for flying a drone illegally, died in Darjeeling on Monday.

Tripathi had visited Darjeeling from Dhading to meet his son, but succumbed to asthma, according to Bed Prasad Ghimire, father of another arrested boy. “After Tripathi arrived in Jhapa from Dhading on the way to Darjeeling, we advised him not to travel to Darjeeling because of his poor health. However, he desperately wanted to meet his arrested son.

After we got news that he had passed away, we visited Darjeeling and sent the dead body to Dhading after autopsy on Tuesday,” Ghimire told THT from Jhapa. Tripathi’s son-in-law Riwaz Baral said the family received the body in Dhading on Wednesday. “We have kept the body in freezer coffin. We have decided to perform his final rites only after Subodh is released,” Riwaz told THT.