Police have concluded that Kumar Thapa Magar, popularly known as 'Nepali Bro' on social media, murdered his wife Ishwori Bhujel due to an 'extramarital affair'. The District Police Range, Kathmandu, after investigating the murder of Ishwori Bhujel, who was also a subedar of the Nepali Army, at 9:30 pm on 22 Jestha, stated that the reason for the murder was her relationship with another woman.

The police had submitted a report with an opinion to the Public Prosecutor's Office, demanding that Pratiksha Acharya, who was in a love relationship with Thapa, be made a defendant in the murder.

After studying the police report, the Public Prosecutor registered a case in the District Court, Kathmandu on Wednesday, making both of them and others defendants. It says, ‘It is seen that he repeatedly argued with his wife regarding his love affair with Pratiksha Acharya and physically and mentally tortured her by beating her.’

Even though Kumar Thapa had repeatedly reconciled with Acharya to not be in a relationship, details of repeated meetings and phone calls have been included in the file. To confirm this, details of the call detail record and a video footage showing repeated telephone conversations between Kumar and Pratiksha have also been submitted.

As mentioned in the charge sheet, as the dispute escalated, Bhujel had also filed a complaint against Thapa for marital rape. ‘After that case, the relationship became even colder, I almost stopped going home,’ Thapa said in his statement to the police in the presence of the government lawyer, ‘When the case was pending in the court, I told my wife to be hostile in the courtroom and during the hearing, let’s settle the case.’

However, he says that Ishwari did not agree, and instead filed a divorce case in the district court. After that, he claims that he did not meet Pratiksha Acharya for a month, and only talked on the phone.

Bhujel did not believe him and did not withdraw the case. A hearing was scheduled on 22 Jestha, with the marital rape and divorce cases being filed. However, on that day, Kumar had already planned to kill his wife.

Murder on the day of the divorce case

On the night of 22 Jestha, around 9:30 pm, Ishwari's home in Tarakeshwor-6, Paiyutar, Kathmandu, was deserted. However, her husband Kumar was carrying a knife with the intention of killing her.

Ishwari Bhujel, who works in the military band Gulma, was returning home on a scooter after completing her duty. At that time, Kumar Thapa was following her in a car. When Ishwari stopped the scooter after reaching a distance of a few meters from her house, he grabbed her from behind and stabbed her in the neck, the charge sheet states.

‘He grabbed her from behind and pretended to hug her and stabbed her with a sharp knife, causing her to fall,’ Kumar confessed in his statement, ‘After that, I was arrested while coming towards the police office in Balaju.’

The police have also collected and submitted CCTV footage of the incident, in which Thapa is seen waiting for his wife in a car. The police say that Thapa is also seen getting out of the same car and following his wife.

According to Kathmandu Police, after the incident, he threw the knife he used on the side of the road. Later, during the investigation, the 9-inch long knife was recovered. Even the T-shirt he was wearing when he was arrested was bloodstained.

While giving his statement to the police, he claimed that he had been waiting for his wife in court all day on the day of the incident. However, Thapa says that he returned disappointed when she did not appear.

After returning from the court, Kumar reached the Balaju-based Re-Condition House of his acquaintance Pujan Thapa Chhetri. After staying there for some time, they went to a sports program organized in Kirtipur. After returning in the evening, he had lunch with another friend Suman Thapa and returned to the Re-Condition House again. He left there at around 7:30 in the evening saying, 'I will go to the gym'. However, instead of going to the gym, he went straight to his house in Paiyutar. There, he tried to take his younger son Ivan out.

However, he claims that he was disappointed when the woman who worked at the house did not allow him. Then, he claims that he got angry when his elder son Janice also asked him to leave the house. In that state of anger and stress, he took the car out again. After that, he waited on the road.

According to the charge sheet, Kumar met Ishwari while working in the army. After joining the army in 2061/62, he met Ishwari, a then soldier, and they fell in love while undergoing vihuol training in the band Gulma. They then got married in 2067.

Social media fame leads to family conflict

Investigating officers say that the social media buzz seems to have brought a big turn in Kumar's life. About three to four years ago, he started making videos on TikTok under the name 'Nepali Bro'. He became famous in a short time through videos of cars, motorcycles, social messages and entertainment.

According to the statements of witnesses and relatives included in the charge sheet, this popularity started to increase the distance in the marital relationship. They say that after he started working with different girls for the videos, disputes started increasing between Ishwari and Kumar.

Kumar himself has also admitted in his statement that he got acquainted with many girls through TikTok.

 ‘After going viral on social media, I met and got to know many girl friends, so I used to upload videos with different girls to increase views,’ he said in his statement. ‘After I uploaded various videos with girls, my wife did not like it and started having various suspicions, and a family dispute started.’

Even after they reconciled, it has been found that Kumar had met Pratiksha Acharya in the meantime. Later, he had also made Acharya the event manager of his wrestling match.