Between Saturday and Monday night, at least three people were murdered in the Kathmandu valley.

Milan Acharya took the lives of his father Kul Prasad and younger brother Prabin at Fika Dhara ward 2 of Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur on Saturday night.

After two days, on Monday night, 23-year-old Nayan Gurung was murdered at the Town Cafe in Chyasal, Lalitpur.

According to initial police investigation reports, no definite reason for the two murders has been found other than a momentary impulse on the part of the assailant.

After a failed suicide bid, Acharya surrendered himself, Nepal Police spokesperson Bishwa Adhikari said. There is a mark from attempted suicide on his body, and police are investigating the matter.

The bodies of 56-year-old Kul Prasad and his 22-year-old son Prabin were found in separate rooms of their residence in ward 2 of Suryabinayak Municipality, Fika Dhara.

“After breaking into the house on Monday morning, we found the father and younger son dead in separate rooms,” said Deputy Superintendent Dhundiraj Neupane, spokesperson for the Bhaktapur District Police Range. “As per our initial investigation, the murders were committed on Saturday night. However, it came to our notice on Monday morning after one of their neighbours informed us that the doors to the rooms had been locked for the past two days.”

The younger son’s body was found on a bed in a makeshift kitchen, while the father’s body was in another room. Both had injuries below their ears. Police recovered a traditional stone grinder and a dumbbell with blood and hair at the scene.

The Acharya brothers had been renting a ground-floor room in the three-storey house for three years.

The Acharya family is from Diktel Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality in Khotang district. The deceased, Kul Prasad, was the acting head of the Khotang District Post Office while younger son Prabin was pursuing a BSc degree.

Nepal Police has also arrested three people on charges of murder of Nayan Gurung and have taken them under investigation.

According to District Police Range Lalitpur spokesperson Navratna Paudel Gurung, who had visited the Town Cafe in Chyasal on Monday night, was involved in a fatal brawl with the cafe staff in the course of paying the bill.

“Gurung was stabbed to death,” spokesperson Paudel said.

Those arrested are Hemraj Bhatta, 26, who works at the restaurant; Janak Bahadur Tamang, 22, of Kavre; and Padmalal Bhatta, 41, of Darchula.

Milan Acharya, who had absconded following the Fika Dhara incident, turned himself in at the Maharajgunj Police Circle on Tuesday morning to confess to the murder of his father and brother.

According to Bishwa Adhikari, spokesperson for Nepal Police, Acharya has confessed to killing his father and younger brother. Adhikari says that Acharya cited depression as the reason for the murder.

“My father had depression, I failed to pass the civil service exams despite multiple attempts, and my younger brother was not good at studying, which had further exacerbated the family’s frustrations,” Adhikari quoted Acharya as saying. “I decided to relieve my family by killing them and later killing myself.”

Psychiatrist Dr Basudev Karki, who has been actively involved in establishing the field of Community Psychiatry in Nepal, says that in most such cases the murderers as well as those who commit serious crimes have poor mental health.

“The parents, the surrounding environment, the whole society, affects an individual’s upbringing. If they are not brought up right, there is a high chance of them committing various kinds of crimes after they grow up,” said Karki.

Of late, there has been a spate of murders. As per initial investigation by Nepal Police, most murder cases result from personal enmity.

Talking to the media on December 18, Nepal Police spokesperson Adhikari said: “The increasing cases of murders are due to personal grievances rather than criminal motives.”

As per the police data, in the first four months of the fiscal year 2024-25, at least 192 people have been murdered.

Anthropologist Dambar Chemjong says that individuals see themselves as alienated from society when they fail to cope with the rapidly changing social, political, economic and technological changes, which leads to depression, suicidal tendencies and criminal activities.

“When social beliefs, norms and values are diluted due to rapid changes in society, people can breach the norms of human life on a momentary impulse,” Chemjong added. “I see the same tendency in Acharya’s case.”