Official Report: Crown Prince Killed Nepal's Royals

Published June 14th, 2001 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down his father Nepal's King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family in a shooting spree at the royal palace, the official commission probing the massacre said Thursday. 

The report placed the blame for the June 1 killings squarely on Dipendra, confirming earlier eyewitness accounts, but it did not give any motive for the murders. 

The commission also refused to confirm reports that Dipendra had shot himself after the massacre. 

Dipendra changed in to army combat uniform in his bedroom at the royal palace before entering the room where the members of the royal family were relaxing after dinner and fired indiscriminately, the speaker of parliament, who was one of the two-member commission, said.  

"Crown Prince Dipendra shot the king first," Tara Nath Ranabhatt said. 

In a two-hour press conference, the speaker set out the full details that the commission had unearthed during its weeklong investigation. 

Dipendra had attended the traditional Friday dinner on June 1 at the palace with the rest of the royal family. 

While he was playing billiards by himself, he downed shots of Famous Grouse whisky. 

He ordered his bodyguard to get him a cigarette laced with hashish and another unidentified substance. 

He was so intoxicated he was swaying from side-to-side and was taken to his room in a drunken state by his bodyguard, his brother Nirajan, Prince Paras and another relative, the report said. 

Just after this he was heard retching in his bathroom. 

From his bedroom Dipendra twice called his girlfriend Devyani Rana on his mobile phone. 

At the end of the last call, he told her: "I am now about to sleep. Goodnight, we'll talk tomorrow,” according to what Rana told the commission. 

But Rana refused to disclose the details of their conversations to the commission, saying they were private. Her tape-recorded statement to the commission was supplied via the Nepalese Embassy in New Delhi. 

After changing Dipendra went to the billiard room with several weapons, including an automatic rifle and a pistol. 

He fired wildly at the ceiling and the walls with an automatic sub-machine gun before shooting his father, who was standing near the billiard table. 

He also shot his mother Queen Aishwarya, his brother Prince Nirajan, his sister Princess Shruti, his uncle Dhirendra, the king's cousin Princess Jayanti, the king's sisters Princess Sharada and Princess Shanti and Kumar Khadga Bikram, the king's brother-in-law. 

"It was seen during the observation of the site of the incident that brain tissues, a few teeth and jaws, red tika, two ear pins, broken pieces of red glass bangles and blood stains were scattered here and there at the place where the Queen was shot," the report said.  

On display at the press conference, attended by around 300 journalists, were the weapons used by Dipendra to shoot the royal family -- KATHMANDU (AFP) 

© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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