A family of four including two children were found dead in Kavresthali of Tarkeshwor Municipality-2, Kathmandu on Monday.

According to superintendent Dinesh Raj Mainali, the police were informed about the incident by the locals at around 9:00 am.

“The 13-year-old daughter had not come out of the house to go to school. The locals got no response from the household when they knocked on the door. They called the police and a team from the Metropolitan Police Circle, Balaju reached the house,” said Mainali, also the spokesperson of Kathmandu District Police Range.

According to Mainali, when police reached the site, the doors and windows of the house were locked from the inside. “When we managed to enter the house, we saw the body of the 41-year-old Dinesh Pandey hanging from the ceiling; the bodies of his wife Sunita Pandey, aged 39, and those of their two children—a 13-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son—on the floor.”

Following the preliminary investigation, police suspect that Pandey first murdered his family and then died by suicide.

“The bodies have been taken to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for postmortem,” said Mainali. “A forensic team has been mobilised to the site to collect evidence.”

Pandey had returned to Nepal after working in Kuwait for 10 years while his wife was running a shop near their house.

Police informed that the couple had approached the Metropolitan Police Circle, Balaju, twice in the past and had both times agreed on a settlement following domestic disputes.

“Further investigation into the case is underway,” said Mainali.