KATHMANDU: The Metropolitan Police were surprised to see a strange sight on Friday. There was a dead body in the bed and another was hanging nearby. The police found husband and wife dead in Grande Villa at Tokha, Kathmandu at around 9 PM that day.

The bodies of Umesh KC and his wife Sudikshya Giri were recovered by the police. According to DSP Pramesh Bista, the spokesperson of Metropolitan Police Circle Kathmandu, the dead body of Umesh was lying in his bed whereas his wife’s body was found in a hanging position.

“The preliminary investigation has shown that the incident occurred after a dispute arose over between the husband and wife,” DSP Bista told Khabarhub, “However, we are continuing to investigate the incident.”

According to the Police, Umesh has sustained head injuries. Police have also recovered a blood-stained stone near the incident site.

“The body has been sent to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj for postmortem, the details of the report are still to come,” DSP Bista said.

According to Police, Umesh had come back to Nepal from the United States only three months ago. He lived with his wife, Sudiksha Giri, at the Grande Villa in Tokha. Himesh KC, Umesh’s brother was preparing to return to the United States on December 30 and had also purchased a flight ticket.

“Some of the incidents seem to have taken place in general disputes,” SSP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, the spokesperson of Nepal Police told Khabarhub, “Illegal sexual relationship and attempts to hide it, financial transactions, quarrels and tensions have been found to lead to impulsive killings.”

Kathmandu Valley has witnessed three similar incidents in the last one year alone. The bodies of three members of the same family were found inside a house at Nikosera in Madhyapur Thimi-9 on September 11.

According to the Police, Sudip Adhikari, 36, his wife Samjhana Adhikari, 34, and their 15-year-old son were found dead in different places in the same house. Police investigation showed that Sudeep had killed his wife and son and had committed suicide afterward.

Similarly, former secretary Arjun Karki’s wife Muna Karki was murdered at her own residence in Lalitpur last January. After her murder, Bijaya Chaudhary 22, the youth working as a servant in the house was found hanging.

While investigating on the basis of CCTV footage and other evidence in the house, the police had concluded that Bijaya had first killed Muna and committed suicide.

The criminologists claim the Bhaktapur and Tokha incidents are somehow of a similar nature.

“The incidents of Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu are of similar nature,” former DIG of Nepal Police Hemanta Malla told while speaking to Khabarhub, “In Bhaktapur incident a person killed others and committed suicide, and the same thing happened in Lalitpur incident, first murder then suicide.”

Tokha’s case also seems of a similar nature. However, as the Tokha incident is still under investigation, nothing can be said for certain now.

Five killed in Kathmandu valley in a month

According to the Metropolitan Police Office, four to five persons are murdered in a month in the three districts of Kathmandu Valley.

The statistics show that there have been 21 murders in the capital valley in the last three and a half months. There were five murders in Shrawan(July 16 –August 16), four in Bhadra (August 17- September 16), three in Asoj (September 17- October 16), four in Kartik (October 17- November 16) and five in Mangsir (November 16- December 15) respectively.

Earlier, there were 148 murders in the Kathmandu valley in the last fiscal years.

The police data reveals that 53 people have been killed in the capital valley in FY 2017/18. The number of such crimes rose to 60 in the fiscal year 2018/19. Relatively, FY 2019/20 saw fewer cases of such nature. There were 35 instances of murder in 2019/20.

The police record shows that most of the murders are committed by relatives or acquaintances.

“Some of the incidents seem to have taken place in general disputes,” SSP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, the spokesperson of Nepal Police told Khabarhub, “Illegal sexual relationship and attempts to hide it, financial transactions, quarrels and tensions have been found to lead to impulsive killings.”

Former DIG Hemanta Malla also says that crime is more related to psychology than the number of incidents.

“More than how many incidents of crimes occur in the country, how safe and secure does the general public feel is important,” Malla told Khabarhub, “ there are more homicides in the United States than in Nepal, but people there feel safer.”

He pointed out that when a person is killed in Nepal, it has a great psychological impact on the common public.

According to him, the most important thing to reduce crime in society is moral education. He said that moral education should be spread on the control of heinous crimes.