Son kills mother for gold, cash

By Kedar Timalsina 

Banepa, Nov. 6: A recent incident in Roshi Rural Municipality-3 of Kavrepalanchowk district has shown how cruel a person becomes for gold and money. 

A 28-year-old man brutally killed his mother for gold and cash, according to police of Kavreplanchok. 

Organising a press conference on Tuesday, the District Police Office of Kavrepalanchowk made Phursang Lama, 28, a resident of Roshi Rural Municipality-3, Bhanjyang village, public, on a charge of murdering his mother. 

District Police Chief and Superintendent of Police Basundhara Khadka said at the conference that Lama killed his 69-year-old mother, Mahili Lama, on November 1 for gold and cash. 

“We received information on November 1 that Mahili Lama was found dead in her kitchen with a head injury. Following this, we sent a police team from the Khaharepangu police post to secure the scene, and Inspector Krishna Giri from the Mangaltar Area Police Office, along with Inspector Dinesh Kunwar from the District Police Office, initiated a preliminary investigation. The team’s suspicion fell on Mahili’s youngest son, leading to the arrest of the man and two others for further investigation,” SP Khadka said. 

The preliminary police investigation revealed that Lama killed his mother for the ring she wore and for cash. 

SP Khadka said that Lama had attempted to avoid suspicion by telling the police that on the day of the incident, a man in a Sonam jacket, red shoes and shorts came to their home looking to buy a goat. When his mother said there was no goat, the man reportedly walked towards the shed with a sickle in his hand. Lama claimed he left the house in a hurry to go to Kathmandu and only later learned of his mother’s murder. The police named the investigation “Operation Sonam” to investigate further into Lama’s account.

According to Superintendent Khadka, Phursang admitted that after his mother went to sleep in the kitchen, he struck her twice with a stone grinder and when that broke, used a door latch to kill her. After killing her, he took her earrings and some cash before fleeing the scene. Lama was arrested on November 3. Police also used sniffer dogs in their investigation.

During a search of Lama’s belongings, they found a bill for the earring and Rs. 9,900 in cash in his wallet. He later confessed that he buried the earring and blood-stained Rs. 3,000 in a pit behind the house, where the police found them. 

In his statement, he admitted that he had only Rs. 1,400 left with him and unable to cover his rent and expenses in Kathmandu, he decided to kill his mother for her earring and cash.

The Kavrepalanchowk District Court has granted an additional seven days of remand order to the police for further investigation into Lama’s case.

Before this, a similar incident occurred in Mahabharat Rural Municipality-4, Mahadebar, where a labourer involved in road construction murdered a couple using household weapons for cash and gold. During this fiscal year, the district has recorded four murder cases, 36 suicides and nine deaths from poisoning, according to the police.