Eleven-month-old twin girls were found abandoned in a septic tank at Pathibhara, Yangwarak Rural Municipality-2, Taplejung district on Wednesday. The twins’ mother, 20-year-old Kamala Bishwokarma, has been at large since Saturday. Both the girls couldn’t make it alive, police said.

Kamala’s mother Sanjamaya heard the girls crying in the septic tank and urged the villagers to come to their rescue. The eldest, Ganga, was found dead while Jamuna was still crying when she was taken out of the tank. Jamuna was rushed to the Taplejung District Hospital, but the doctors there advised the relatives to take her to a state-of-the-art hospital. She was then taken to Manmohan Hospital in Jhapa where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Kamala was separated from her husband a few years ago. She has been living with her mother Sanjamaya since. It is not clear who the father of the twins is, said one of Kamala’s relatives.

Since the Bishwokarma family is financially poor, the villagers had collected Rs20,000 after the incident for Jamuna’s treatment.

The neighbours suspected that Kamala might have beaten her children before dumping them into the septic tank, as the girls had bruises on their bodies.

The incident might have occurred on Saturday, they said, since Kamala has been missing since.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Gyanendra Bahadur Basnet said the search is on to find the absconding woman. “We suspect that the mother dumped the girls on Saturday as she went out of contact from that very day. Detailed investigation is underway into the incident,” said Basnet, adding that the bodies would be handed over to the family soon after postmortem.