Nine persons in Panchthar were murdered due to an impending divorce, police have concluded after preliminary investigations.
Nine in the families of Dhan Raj Sherma, 41, and his father-in-law Bam Bahadur Fiyak, 74, were hacked with sharp weapon Monday night.
Man Bahadur Makhim, the youngest son-in-law of Fiyak, has been identified as the murderer based on preliminary investigations and description of the masked murderer's appearance given to the police by 12-year-old Sita Khajum who ran away to save her life.
Makhim, who presumably hung himself near the site of incident after the hacking spree, was set to have divorce. "They were in the final stage of divorce. Makhim may have finished the families of his father-in-law and brother-in-law feeling the duo counseled his wife to divorce him," a police source confided.
Ward chairman of Miklajung rural municipality 3, where the murder happened, Dhan Raj Fiyak told Setopati that Sherma and father-in-law Fiyak had to repeatedly mediate in quarrels between Makhim and his wife in the past.
Ward chairman Fiyak said both the families had no animosity with anyone and the murder may have happened due to quarrel between husband and wife.
Survivor of the incident Khajum has told the police that there was a single murderer, and the police have estimated that the same person killed family members in the two houses that are 15-minutes apart.
Dhan Raj Sherma, 41, and his father-in-law Bam Bahadur Fiyak, 74, were both murdered Monday night. Jasmita Fiyak, 36, Man Kumari Fiyak, 26, Iksa Sherma, six, Yovana Sherma, 12, Muna Sherma, eight, Pursi Maya Fiyak—Bam Bahadur's wife, and Aashika Khajum Limbu were also killed.
The police also have connected the murder case to an incident of mixing glass dust in salt a week ago. Muna Sherma and Man Kumari Fiyak--who were both murdered on Monday--had fallen ill after eating salt contaminated with glass dust last Sunday.
They had unknowingly ingested glass dust, mixed in salt, while having lunch during the dhaka weaving training. Six others had also fallen ill at the time.
Makhim was suspected of mixing glass in the box of salt in the kitchen at the local hotel where the eight had dined, according to ward chairman Fiyak. But the police could not identify the culprit even in nine days. Fiyak believes that the murders could have been averted if the case of mixing glass were properly investigated.
