Former Home Minister and Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire's family gave up hope for his return, and performed his final rites at Pashupati Aryaghat on Friday.
Ghimire's car had plunged into the Trisuli River on Sunday, when he was on his way back to Kathmandu from a pilgrimage. His body was not recovered, and the family presumed him dead.
Ghimire's funeral was performed with holy strands of the kush plant and ceremonially cremated, as is customary when relatives do not have a body.
Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi and Nepal Police Chief, among others, reached Pashupati Aryaghat to pay their final respects to Ghimire.
Ghimire's mother Chaitanya's body was also cremated on the bank of the Bagmati river. Along with her, his relative Narayan Prasad Kafle and bodyguard Ram Chandra Karki were found dead at the accident site on the Prithvi Highway.
Ghimire and his two brothers Mohan and Prakash were not found. But the car driver Bishnu Rai miraculously survived the accident, and is now undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kathmandu.
Ghimire is regarded as an honest and learned bureaucrat, and credit for successful holding the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013 as Home Minister in an interim government led by Khila Raj Regmi.
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