People in the neighborhood came out of their houses and rushed toward a four-storey house where the noise was coming from, but could not get onto the second floor.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ganesh Bahadur Danuwar of Devbhumi, Kavre, had in a fit of rage hacked his wife, Laxmi, to death and had seriously injured his two daughters. Danuwar guarded the entry to his floor with a khukuri in his hand to thwart the neighbors.
The room where he lived was in flames; it had probably been torched by Danuwar, who was living in his in-law’s house, or had been set aflame by stray candles during the confrontation between Danuwar and his wife. The neighbors living in the adjoining house feared the worst.
During the standoff in front of Danuwar’s room, nine-year-old Anjali, who is Danuwar’s step daughter, showed considerable courage and presence of mind to escape to the adjoining house through an adjoining window, which was stained with blood. She had tied some shawls together and asked the neighbors to pull her through the window; once safe, she narrated the story of how Danuwar had killed her mother and attacked her and her two-year-old sister, Anshu.
A group of 3-4 policemen who had reached the scene of the crime soon found out they would need help and sought reinforcement. Finally, after about two hours of terror, Danuwar was subdued; during the attempts to bring Danuwar under control, neighbor Praveen Shrestha and a policeman sustained injuries, said Sub-Inspector Kishore Acharya of the Metropolitan Police, Janasewa, Bishal Bazar.
In the detention room at the police station, the slightly built Danuwar, clad in blue jeans and a white shirt, stared blankly with moist eyes, perhaps trying to come to terms with the heinous act he had committed.
The neighbors don’t recollect any incident of confrontation between the couple and knew only Laxmi, who sold flowers at the Ganesthan temple premises, following the profession of her Malakar parents.
The elder brother of the deceased, Sanjaya Malakar, says that Danuwar, who was a cook in Thamel, was a gentle and shy person who never drank, though the police say that he may have committed the crime in a state of inebriation.
“He was a shy, soft spoken man of few words and never consumed alcohol during our festive gatherings. Laxmi used to say that he never drank,” Malakar says.
Danuwar and Laxmi had been in love before Laxmi married Danuwar’s friend, but Danuwar married Laxmi after she gave birth to Anjali. The couple was happy together, and thus people have had a hard time coming up with a plausible reason for the murder.
So what brought about such a tragic end to such a happy love story? “The only reason we can think of is that Danuwar had been out of work recently and that issue may have led to a routine couple’s tiff,” Malakar assumes.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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