By Our Correspondent
Salyan, Dec. 13: Criminal incidents have been on the rise in the district lately. According to the Salyan Police Office, criminal incidents have been reported among the relatives and family members.
It has been found that 80 per cent of the criminal incidents in the district are due to alcohol.

Police have arrested Laxmi Chand, 26, brother-in-law of the deceased, and Radha Poudel, 25, on charge of killing Sher Bahadur Chand, 33, of Ranikot in Sarada Municipality-5 on November 26. While the police were investigating, it was revealed that they had killed his brother-in-law after consuming alcohol and using a sharp weapon.
They killed their brother-in-law and set Sher Bahadur to fire near his house at the same night.

Similarly, Kabiram Khadka, 47, of Timile in Kumakh Rural Municipality-5 killed his wife with a sharp weapon after consuming excessive alcohol. These two are just representative events.
Recently, the number of criminal incidents has been increasing in Salyan due to alcohol. Of the 311 cases registered in the last three years, 221 cases were due to intoxication.
In FY 2075/76, 62 criminal cases happened due to alcohol, 64 in 2076-77 and 95 in 2077/78.

Chief of District Police Office, Salyan, Sumit Khadka said that incidents of violence against women, domestic violence, indecent treatment, rape, death threats, deaths due to vehicle accident, and murder were taking place in the district due to alcohol consumption.
Though the concerned bodies have been conducting various awareness programmes for crime reduction, the incidents of serious crimes are increasing in the district, according to the police.

Due to the open availability of domestic and sealed liquor, serious incidents of murder, rape, beating on charge of witchcraft, indecent treatment and domestic violence are on the rise in the district.
Arjun Poudel, information officer at the District Police Office, Salyan, said that 81 criminal cases have been registered in the last four months.
According to him, police have in the last four months had registered five murder charge sheets and seven attempt to murder charge sheets.

Although, foreign employment, poverty and child marriage have led to an increase in criminal activity, alcohol is the main cause of death, according to police.
INSEC representative Mina Budhathoki said that the number of complaints lodged by the victims has increased in recent times. According to her, there are statistics that alcohol is more prevalent in relatively remote areas due to its geographical location. There seems to be difficulty in investigating incidents in such areas.

In the rural areas, the local level has also stated that alcohol is the cause of criminal incidents in the society. Chairman of Darmagaun Rural Municipality Nim Bahadur KC said that fights, suicides and other acts are committed due to excess alcohol consumption.