SINDUPALCHOWK, Jan 31: If you are in the habit of putting on gold jewellery, beware. This habit may cost you your life. An elderly couple in Sindhupalchowk district was killed Tuesday night because of their jewellery habit.
Unidentified assailants broke into the couple´s house in Listi VDC - 5 and killed Bhakta Bahadur Pradhan, 60, and his wife Man Kumari Pradhan, 55, to take the gold worn by them.
The couple was clubbed to death with a musal [a wooden implement used to make beaten rice] at around 10.30 p.m., informed police, quoting locals. The attackers even cut off the couple´s ears with something sharp and fled with the gold jewellery worn by them.
However, the couple´s 12-year-old son Prem escaped with his life.
"I was about to go to bed upstairs when I suddenly heard my parents making a commotion. I went downstairs to see what was happening and saw two persons beating up my parents mercilessly. Fearing for my life, I fled through a window and ran to inform the locals." said Prem, describing the incident.
A team from the border police office in Larcha led by Inspector Biswo Karki found the couple lying dead in a pool of blood.
"Preliminary investigations by police show that the Pradhan couple was attacked for their gold," Karki told Republica.
According to him, the unidentified assailants looted about two tola of gold, cutting off the couple´s ears in the process.
After Prem reached the village and informed villagers about the attack, they informed police right away, said Listi VDC locals.
The scene of the murders indicates that there was a tussle between the couple and the assailants, said the police, adding that they had intensified their search for the criminals.
Police are yet to identify the killers.
Local people, who have been feeling insecure following the incident, have refused to accept the bodies of the deceased and demanded with the local administration to establish a police station in the VDC.
They cremated the deceased only after the local administration assured them it would discuss the matter with higher-ups.
The Pradhan couple is survived by their seven children. Prem, their younger son, had been staying with them.
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