Kathmandu, March 15:

Family members of seven-year-old Anuska Dhungana who was found murdered in a neighbour’s house on June 3 last year accused the police of carelessness in the investigation of the case and of failing to punish the guilty. Sanjeeb Dhungana, the father of Anuska, said the family was a little contended as Mohan Bahadur Blon, the prima facie guilty, was nabbed and investigation was speeded up. “But we are shocked to know that Blon has absconded from the Bal Sudhar Griha at Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, on February 4,” he said.

Speaking at a press meet, he doubted that Blon could have managed to abscond on his own. He suspected other hands in the murder and they might have helped him abscond from the rehabilitation centre fearing that the boy might reveal the facts in the court.

Trilochan Gautam, a relative of Anuska, said Blon should have been put in jail not in a rehabilitation centre as there were confusing statements regarding his age. “Blon had told the police that he was 17 years old. Medical reports stated he was 15 years old but Blon, changing his earlier statement to the police, told the court that he was just 11-year-old.” “The police even didn’t interrogate the family of the house in which Anuska’s body was found,” he added. Anuska’s uncle Sanjaya said their faith on police has faded due to police’s behaviours in recent days.

“The police changed the FIR report when the case was taken to the court,” he said. Anuska went missing on June 1 and was found murdered on June 3 in the room of Blon who was working as a helper at the house owned by Dharmaraj Gadtaula at Sinamangal. Kathmandu District Court had allowed to keep Blon in Bal Sudhar Griha until final hearing but he fled away from the Bal Sudhar Griha on February 4.

Sanjaya flayed the Bal Sudhar Griha, which had said that it had nothing to do with Blon’s absconding.