Police on Friday made public two people accused of murdering four members of a family in Mandu of Chhayanath Rara Municipality-6 in Mugu district some two weeks ago.

The arrested are 31-year-old Gorkharaj Shahi alias Kale of Chhayanath-7 currently living in Banke and Gopal Bahadur Bohara, 31, of Chhayanath-6. Police made them public amid a press meet at the Mugu District Police Office on Friday afternoon.

Deputy Inspector General Bhim Dhakal, who is also Karnali Province police chief, said Shahi was arrested from Birendranagar in Surkhet on Monday and Bohara from his house in Mandu on Friday.

According to police, Gopal’s motive behind the murder was revenge. He had requested Deepak Bohara, the husband of the murdered woman, to facilitate a foreign employment visa for him from a Qatar-based company Deepak was employed. Police investigation revealed Gopal planned and executed the murder after Deepak ignored his request.

Gopal, the mastermind of the murder, according to police, then met Gorkharaj and plotted the crime. Acting on the plan, Gorkharaj then left for Mugu on October 22. At 9pm on October 26, the duo murdered the woman and her three kids with a khukuri and made off with a mobile set, a pair of earrings and a necklace, police said.

After the incident, Gorkharaj walked to the border of Mugu and Jumla and escaped to Surkhet on a bus, said DIG Dhakal.

The bodies of the 26-year-old woman, her 11-year-old and six-month-old sons and a seven-year-old daughter were found at their house on October 27.