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King Birendra tried to shoot Dipendra

Nepal's late King Birendra had made an abortive last-minute attempt to shoot at his son, then Crown Prince Dipendra as the latter fired indiscriminately on the royals at the Narayanhity Palace on the night of June 1, according to the details of the official probe report released in Kathmandu.

Excerpts of the report released on Saturday in the state-owned Nepalese daily Gorkhapatra also quoted Prince Paras, son of the new King Gyanendra, as having said that the main motive behind the massacre was Dipendra's intention to marry his girlfriend Devyani.

After getting injured in the first attack by Dipendra, the late King Birendra picked up the 9mm caliber MP-5K automatic sub-machine gun, which the former had thrown before entering the billiards room in the palace for the second time and firing at the monarch and others, the late king's sister Princess Shova Shahi is quoted as having told the high-level probe panel, whose report was made public on Thursday.

However, Shahi snatched the weapon from her brother and pulled out the magazine thinking that it was the only weapon Dipendra had.

The two-member committee, headed by Chief Justice Keshab Prasad Upadhyaya, had blamed Dipendra for the palace massacre, which had sparked off widespread protests in the Himalayan kingdom.

Corrborating Shova Shahi's version, Prince Paras is quoted as having said, "She (Shova) must have thought that it was the only weapon Dai (Dipendra) had but I saw that he had much more weapons."

According to the Nepali version of the full report, Dipendra had differences with his parents over his plan to marry Devyani Rana, his girlfriend for the last seven to eight years.

Pointing out to the "close relationship" between Dipendra and Devyani, the report quotes Raju Kumar Karki, aide of camp to the late Crown Prince as saying, "Devyani is Sarkar's (Dipendra's) girl friend. The relationship has been continuing since the last seven to nine years."

Karki, who has been in the service of the royal palace for the last eleven years, also claimed that Dipendra used to bring her to the palace. "The first time was probably two years ago," he said.

Even Supriya Shah, who is said to be sharing a 'friendly relationship' with Dipendra, told the committee that "he wished to marry that Devyani."

Shah, said to be a schooltime friend of the late Prince, said, "We used to talk over the phone time to time. We used to meet previously but not in recent days."

Claming that she had a talk with Dipendra even on the fateful day, Shah told the panel, "I had talked with him over the phone around 11:09 am, but we did not talk anything special. We talked normally and he said that he would call me that night. But he did not call."

Meanwhile, in the first ever open criticism of late Crown Prince Dipendra, The Kathmandu Post in a hard-hitting editorial on the probe panel's report said, "Not so upbeat is the image of the then Crown Prince that emerges from the committee's findings.

The image is one of a dual persona, one cultivated by the palace for public consumption and another that was less savoury.

PTI

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