Madan Nepali was at his rented room in Balaju Height. He received a call from an unknown number. The caller was a representative of Nepal Police. The news he delivered was something Madan could hardly believe. The call came at 2:30 p.m. By 3 o’clock, Madan had already reached Bir Hospital. Before he arrived, his 26-year-old brother Ganesh Nepali had already been taken to the emergency ward. In the Bir Hospital premises, Madan tearfully recounted, “I was left speechless. Only after coming here did I learn everything.”

Madan’s brother Ganesh worked as a rider through a ride-sharing app. Ganesh, who lived in Bhaktapur with his wife and nearly three-year-old daughter, had gone to his brother’s place on Wednesday. Madan said, “He had left for rides at 5 in the morning. Suddenly, this news came.”

Originally from Soru Rural Municipality–1 in Mugu, Ganesh had been living in Kathmandu for the past few years. According to his brother Madan, he was trying to go to Dubai for foreign employment and was also preparing for the civil service exams at the same time. Madan said, “And now this has happened.”

Madan said that when he hurried to Bir Hospital, his brother’s condition was such that he could not be seen. He recounted that while Ganesh was in the emergency room, they managed to exchange a few words. Madan said, “He told me to take care of our parents. And he said this was all because of the metropolis. After that, my brother lost his speech.”

According to SSP Dilip Ghimire, chief of Kathmandu Police Range, Nepali had parked his motorcycle in front of the Department of Passports, where the metropolis police had placed a wheel lock on it. Upset that his bike had been wheel-locked, he took petrol from his motorcycle and set himself on fire. Ghimire told Kantipur, “After he was injured, police immediately rescued him and took him to Bir Hospital.”

To understand how the incident happened, we also spoke with Bishnu Prasad Joshi, a municipal police officer with Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Bishnu said that after the incident, he inquired with the officers deployed at the scene and explained, “We place wheel locks if there is an obstruction to public movement or on the footpath. The metropolis police placed a wheel lock there as well. But when he said he would not pay the fine, the incident occurred when the vehicle arrived to tow the motorcycle.” According to Joshi, two hours after the wheel lock was placed, Ganesh said, “I won’t pay the fine, take it wherever you want.” After that, following a report from the officers on the scene, a joint team of municipal and traffic police arrived with a vehicle to tow the motorcycle. He added, “It happened after the vehicle arrived. Our officers were in front of the vehicle. While they were busy with other tasks, we heard that Ganesh took petrol from his motorcycle, poured it on himself, and set himself on fire. But our officers only noticed this a little later.”

Joshi said that in such wheel lock cases, the owner of a two-wheeler must pay a fine of one thousand rupees. When Kantipur asked, “Did this incident happen after a dispute with you?” he replied, “Rather than arguing, we only proceed according to the law. A one-thousand-rupee fine alone is surely not the cause of death. There may be other reasons as well.”

After Joshi said that a joint team of municipal and traffic police had gone to tow the vehicle, we asked Naresh Raj Adhikari, spokesperson for the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office, about the incident. He said they had no information about the incident and that such towing operations were carried out by the metropolis police. He added that in wheel lock cases, they impose a lower fine than the metropolis, stating that for two-wheelers, they only charge a five-hundred-rupee fine per incident.

After the incident, Ganesh’s wife, Ek Maya, rushed to the hospital clutching her daughter, who is not yet three years old. But in the hospital crowd, she was unable to enter the emergency room to see her husband. Barely holding herself together, Ek Maya said, “How did this happen? I am not in a state to say anything.”

Ek Maya does not know exactly how much her husband paid for the motorcycle or how much of the installment has been paid. She guessed, “I think he bought it for around three lakhs. He used to say he had paid about half the installments.”

After learning about the incident, Ganesh’s nephew Man Nepali also arrived at the hospital. He said his uncle used to tell him about the troubles he faced from the municipal police while riding, and sometimes he had to pay fines twice in a single day. He showed a message Ganesh had sent on the 13th of Asar. It read, “Yesterday, when I went to pick up some goods, the municipal police locked my bike, man. Now I have to pay 1,000…” At the end of the message, there were two crying emojis.

Ganesh’s brother-in-law Padam Nepali expressed anger, saying such an incident happened because the government imposes fines greater than people’s incomes. He said that even after bringing Ganesh to the hospital, there was an immediate lack of money for treatment.

Madan said they are already struggling to gather money for treatment expenses. He said, “I showed my citizenship card to get medicine on credit. I have no idea how we’ll manage the other expenses.”

Dhan Karn Malla, ward chair of Soru Rural Municipality–1, where Ganesh’s home is located, said the Nepali family is economically disadvantaged and that Ganesh had come to Kathmandu for work a few months ago. He said, “There is no way to make a living in the village. The harvest does not last a year. Such an incident happened in such a family.”