Okhaldhunga, August 22

A man was murdered by a group of unidentified individuals while he was sleeping in his home in Okhaldhunga last night.

Santosh Karki, 29, of Molung Rural Municipality was killed by a group of unidentified individuals using a sharp weapon. Locals had informed police about the incident after Karki’s blood-soaked body was found in his room.

According to Inspector Niranjan Bhattarai, a police team led by DSP Anantaram Sharma reached the incident site today and launched an investigation into the incident. The post-mortem was conducted at Rumjatar Hospital and it will take some days for the report to come, said Inspector Bhattarai.

Locals say that an unidentified person had asked about the location of Santosh’s home and they had showed the home thinking that he might be a friend of Santosh.

Santosh was alone when the incident happened. A blood-stained knife, T-shirt, pants and a cap used by the killers were recovered from the nearby forest. “Though the incident looks mysterious, we are investigating and it will take some time for the facts to come out,” Bhattarai said.

Karki’s house is 15 minutes’ walk from his neighbour’s. Though Karki was living in Kathmandu, he had been living in the village for the past one-and-a-half months.

Molung Rural Municipality ward chair Ram Kumar Karki said the incident was unimaginable. Gopal Nepal, information officer at the rural municipality, said Karki was living in the village for the past one-and-a-half months.

Nepal, who studied together with Karki up to SLC, said he was friendly and good. “When I was on my way home from office, I heard Karki had committed suicide. But, when I reached his home, I found that the incident looked like murder,” Nepal said.