While under house arrest, Bhimsen smuggled a letter to the Resident Hodgson appealing him to intervene on his behalf, which Hodgson refused at that moment but sought permission from his superiors to do so. Bhimsen was given brutal treatment at the orders of Rana Jang during the arrest. Rana Jang did not choose direct assassination of Bhimsen but some strong calculated savage measures to make Bhimsen commit suicide. One of the savage measures was that the false rumours on the method of punishment to Bhimsen was circulated every day. Meanwhile, Bhimsen's third wife, Bhakta Kumari, happened to insult the Senior Queen Samrajya Laxmi, who upon hearing about this insult, was so angered that she order Bhakta Kumari to be removed from Bagh Durbar and put in a common jail. After this, a rumor started to spread around Kathmandu that Bhakta Kumari would be stripped of her clothes and paraded through the streets of the city. This rumor also fell on Bhimsen's ears; and unable to bear such indignity, Bhimsen attempted suicide by slitting his throat with a khukuri on 28 July 1839. The news of this attempted suicide further angered the King and the Queen, who came to look at his body, and instead of feeling sympathy for the old minister and ordering immediate medical care, Bhimsen's blood-soaked, unconscious body was ordered that same day to be dragged through the streets and dumped by the same bank of Bishnumati river, where Bhimsen had dumped the dead bodies of 45 people 33 years ago during the Bhandarkhal massacre. Bhimsen finally died nine days later, surrounded by vultures, jackals, and dogs, on 5 August 1839, at the age of 64. Since suicide was considered a grave crime, soldiers were stationed at his death spot so that his body would not be removed and given ordinary cremation rites; and his body was allowed to be devoured by scavenging animals. On the spot where Bhimsen drew his last breath, a Shiva temple by the name Bhim-Mukteshwar was later constructed by his nephew Mathabar Singh Thapa.