Three members of a family were found dead at Nigale in ward 1 of Dhankuta Municipality on Wednesday night.

According to the District Police Office, Dhankuta, the bodies of 35-year-old Tika Gurung, his wife Bhima Gurung, aged 36, and their 10-year-old son Aayush were found in their rented room at Pandepasal Chowk, Dhankuta. Their six-year-old daughter is unhurt. Preliminary police investigation shows that Tika, in an inebriated state, murdered his wife and son before hanging himself.

The Gurung family, originally hailing from ward 1 of Chainpur Municipality in Sankhuwasabha district, had been staying in Maniklal Shrestha’s house for the past 12 years. The Gurung couple eked out a living as daily wage earners in Dhankuta.

“It is suspected that Tika, under the influence of alcohol, first throttled his wife then beat his son to death before killing himself,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajbabu Maharjan. The bodies of Bhima and Aayush were found lying on the floor while Tika was hanging from the ceiling. Detailed investigation is underway into the incident, said police.

According to investigation officers, the father attacked his son as the latter attempted to protect his mother. Police suspected that after murdering the wife and son Tika took his daughter to a neighbour’s place, left her there and decided to kill himself by hanging.

It is found that Tika left his six-year-old daughter in the room of Laxmi Devi Shrestha who stays in the same house at around 12.45pm. “He (Tika) left the girl in my room stating that he and his wife had to go outside. I thought that they had some work as Tika often went out at night to work as a faith healer,” police quoted Laxmi as saying.

The six-year-old girl, according to police, said that she saw her father throttling the mother and thrashed the brother when he tried to stop his father.

The horrendous incident came to light as the girl went to their room on Thursday morning. She informed her neighbours after seeing her father hanging and the mother and brother lying on the floor.

According to Maharjan, Bhima sustained injuries on the face and around the throat while Aayush had head injuries. The security personnel collected the bodies after Tika’s brother Suryaman and sister Sanju reached the incident site on Thursday. The bodies were taken to Dhankuta District Hospital for postmortem.

The neighbours mourned the deaths attributing them to the tragic outcome of frequent domestic violence that plagued the family. “Tika used to drink alcohol and often had disputes with his wife in the past as well. I did not take Wednesday night’s dispute quite seriously as the Gurung couple used to have such disputes quite often,” said Laxmi, the neighbour of the deceased couple.