Kathmandu, November 28:

The motive behind the murder of Ashish Manadhar and Ritesh Rauniyar remains

under wraps and police say they are clueless as to the circumstances that led to their deaths. The boys went missing on November 15 and were found tortured to death on

November 26.

“Motive is the key to crack a case. Once we pinpoint the motive, it will be easy to nab the culprits,” said Umesh Ranjit, DSP at the metropolitan police circle office at Kalimati. SP Birendra Babu Shrestha, who is heading the probe panel, said he was not in a position to comment on the motive as investigation was still going on.

Meanwhile, the family members of both boys are in shock and disbelief. “I had no enmity with anybody,” said Ashish’s father Shree Prasad Manadhar. “It is hard to believe that my son is gone. At times, even now I feel my son is alive.” Ritesh’s family refrained from speaking, but a close relative said

the boy was inquisitive and Internet savvy. He added that Ritesh was intelligent enough to teach himself how to repair mobile phone sets.

The Rauniyar relative said that Ritesh, accompanied by Ashish, had gone to Kalanki to collect money from an unidentified person.

According to the relative, the family’s effort to contact him went in vain after his phone got switched off at around 4.30 am “Before that, we kept calling him on his cell phone but he would not take the call,” Ashish’s mother Anita Manandhar said. She added that they did not get any call for ransom from anyone.

A schoolmate of Ritesh bearing a Pundit surname was the last person to establish contact on his phone. Pundit was interrogated by the police but information about what he divulged has not been made public.

Ritesh’s relative said that the police kept telling the boys’ families they had mobilised their network to find them. “Still, they never told us where and how they were searching,” he added. Both boys’ families have accused the police of lukewarm response and not doing enough before the bodies were found. “We were eventually told by the police not to speak to the media,” the relative said.

Meanwhile, the ad-hoc struggle committee that includes the boys’ family members signed a five-point agreement with the government in the presence of the prime minister and the home minister.

Private schools mourn duo’s death:

Kathmandu: All private and boarding schools remained closed today at the call of the Kathmandu district chapter of Private and Boarding Schools’ Organisation Nepal (PABSON) and National Private and Boarding School Association of Nepal (NPABSAN) to mourn the suspicious death of the two youths.

Bhoj Bahadur Shah, president of PABSON said, “We made a joint call for a school closure today to protest the killings and to pressurise the government to maintain peace and security.”

The youths — Ritesh Rauniyar and Ashish Manandhar, both 15 year old Tahachal residents, who went missing on November 15, were found dead in a forest at Thankot on Wednesday. Ashish was studying at New Zenith School and Ritesh at Wilson Academy at Bafal.