Nepalese prince killed his family, inquiry concludes

DELHI - The two-man team investigating the murder of King Birendra of Nepal and most of his family has concluded that Crown Prince Dipendra carried out the murders, according to leaked reports from Kathmandu.

The Chief Justice of Nepal, Keshab Prasad Uphadyaya, and the Speaker of the lower house of parliament, Taranath Rana Bhatt, finished work yesterday and last night were expected to present their report to the new monarch, King Gyanendra.

The local press has speculated that it will be made public on Monday.

Yesterday, security was stepped up around the city, with a peaceful procession of sportspeople hoping to pay their last respects to their "dear and respected royals" turned back well short of Narayanhity Palace, the royal family's residence.

Police were under orders to stop all mass gatherings and marches near the palace, and after dark they searched cars at major crossroads.

There is concern that revolutionaries of the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal, whose five-year insurgency in the countryside has taken more than 1,600 lives, might choose this moment of instability to make their presence felt in the capital.

On 4 June, the day Crown Prince Dipendra, briefly named king, died in hospital of his allegedly self-inflicted wounds, and his uncle Gyanendra ascended the throne, riots broke out across Kathmandu as citizens demanded to be told the truth about the killings.

Friends and relatives of survivors, and at least one eye-witness, have consistently told reporters that Dipendra was responsible, running amok with machine guns in a state of drugged or drunken frenzy, following an argument with his parents.

But the Nepalese public has shown great sceepticism over these accounts, preferring to see a conspiracy involving the new king and Paras Shah, his only son and de facto heir.

In the past few years Paras Shah is said to have killed four people in separate drunken hit-and-run incidents, but because Nepal's royals are immune from the law unless the King sanctions their prosecution, he has suffered no penalties.

The two-man commission is said to have worked night and day for the past week, interviewing more than 100 people, including survivors.

One key witness who declined to be interviewed was Devyani Rana, the aristocratic woman Dipendra wished to marry, but whom his mother, Queen Aishwarya, rejected.

It was an argument over his choice of bride that is believed to have triggered the prince's murderous attack. Devyani has left the country and is believed to be in India.

Yesterday, in a reprise of the katto ceremony that took place for late King Birendra on Monday, the soul of Dipendra, embodied by a brahmin priest wearing the dead prince's clothes, was packed off into exile on an elephant, to rid the city of his ghost.

- INDEPENDENT