Police has remained suspiciously quiet about the death of three children who were found dead in a fish pond at Arun Rural Municipality in Bhojpur on June 26.

The families of deceased children—Ranjib Sapkota, 14; Sushma Phuyal, 13; and Pradeep Phuyal, 8, say although three separate teams from the District Police Office, the Eastern Regional Police Office and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police investigated into the case, none of them are willing to tell them what had happened. 

“Even the post-mortem reports are being withheld,” said Chetnath Phuyal, the father of Sushma and Pradeep. “How long should we wait to learn the truth?”

Rabindra Sapkota, the father of Ranjib, said what little hope they had of learning the truth when the CIB took over the case has also shattered. “The CIB team spent a week investigating before leaving without telling us anything,” he said.

Deputy Inspector General of Nepal Police Rameshraj Bhattarai, at the Eastern Regional Police Office, said the investigation was still in progress. “We are in the middle of a technical investigation,” he said.

The case was also recently brought up in Parliament, where lawmaker Kumari Laxmi Rai drew the government’s attention towards the investigation delay. She has demanded the government to direct the police to expedite the investigation.