02-04-2007, 06:12 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Masked men, not Dipendra, killed Nepal king </b>
pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta | New Delhi
Queen mother's maid exposes 'truth' behind regicide, claims cover-up
With the monarchy virtually abolished and King Gyanendra stripped of all powers and privileges, a concerted effort is being made to expose skeletons in Nepal's royal cupboard with the explicit purpose of discrediting Narayanhity Palace.
For starters, 'investigative reporters' are trying to provoke a fresh inquiry into the night of the long knives on June 1, 2001 when King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, princes and princesses were slaughtered. King Gyanendra came to power after that massacre.
According to eyewitness accounts and an official inquiry, Crown Prince Dipendra, high on drugs and alcohol, had slaughtered his parents and siblings, and then turned the gun on himself, that fatal evening. Whispered gossip in the bazaars of Kathmandu was more colourful than the anodyne official version, but nobody dared raise uncomfortable questions, least of all in media.
That silence could soon become a thing of the past. A new book on the royal massacre, Rakta Kunda (The Massacre), written by Nepalese journalist Krishna Abiral, raises questions that are bound to provide ammunition to those who want to embarrass King Gyanendra and paint him as a tyrant.
Rakta Kunda tells the story of the massacre as narrated by 'Shanta', Queen Mother Ratna's personal maid and one of the few witnesses who survived the ghastly bloodletting. Shanta's husband, Trilochan Acharya, an employee of the palace, was killed in the shootout.
If the author, who describes Rakta Kunda as a "historical novel", and the former royal maid are to be believed, it was not Crown Prince Dipendra who spilled royal blood on June 1, 2001. According to the book, "two men masked as Crown Prince Dipendra fired the shots that led to the massacre".
The book describes Dipendra as "a man who was killed conspiratorially (and then) called a murderer". Apart from this startling claim, the author also asserts that "King Mahendra didn't die of a heart attack; he committed suicide".
An entire chapter of Rakta Kunda has been translated into English and put out on the Internet. Kantipur, Nepal's most popular daily, has published excerpts from the book, reflecting the changed times and the fall of the once all-powerful palace.
Questioning the official inquiry's finding, as also the statement of eyewitnesses, that Dipendra was high on hashish and alcohol, the book says, "Indeed, all the blame for the incident was put on Dipendra's head. The probe commission formed to investigate the incident, too, instead of making a neutral investigation, said Dipendra was guilty... He was projected as a hashish addict. But it's all a show. In the end, what more can you expect from those who just follow orders?"
For evidence, the author says, "The fact that no evidence of hashish was found in the stub of the cigarette, which Dipendra was said to have smoked before the incident, proves this... Like what Shanta didi says, the police lab report does say, 'no trace of narcotics was found in the cigarette stub'."
Shanta didi says this and a lot more. For instance, "Another thing is, (the) investigation report says Dipendra committed suicide after killing everybody.... You think yourself - is it possible to commit suicide with a machine gun? To commit suicide with a machine gun one has to shoot oneself under the chin by pulling the trigger with the toe? But Dipendra was shot in the chest. So doesn't it become clear that he was shot by somebody else?"
The former royal maid is most dismissive of the statement by Kumar Gorakh Shamshere Rana, whose wife and King Birendra's daughter, Shruti, was among the victims, that "it was, in fact, Dipendra who fired the shots". The book quotes Shanta as saying, "I don't know why Gorakh said so. But I think he was confused. He said so because he thought the man wearing the mask was Dipendra. I think he got confused or he said what he was told to say."
Waving away Gorakh's statement, she insists, "The fact that three different kinds of machinegun bullets were found at the incident site also contradicts this. It is impossible for a person to fire from three machineguns at the same time. I am very sure that others wearing Dipendra's mask had fired the shots... The conclusion that Dipendra committed suicide is a plain lie. I will tell you the truth. Murderers wearing masks had used all the three machineguns found at the incident site. Dipendra sarkar only had a Glok pistol. That too he wasn't carrying that day."
Shanta has raised a point that official investigators have never been able to answer convincingly. "How is it possible that Gorakh and Shruti... were hit but miraculously, Dr Rajeeb (royal family physician) and Paras (son of King Gyanendra) who were present in the same room escaped without a scratch? Nothing happened to Paras sarkar, who was alongside Birendra sarkar, Shruti sarkar and Gorakh Shumshere. Dipendra sarkar spared Paras sarkar just because he said, 'Dada, it's just us here.' Does something like that actually happen? All a show..."
And then the twist in the royal maid's tale: Princess Prekshya, sister of Queen Komal and widow of Dhirendra Shah, younger brother of King Birendra who also died in the massacre, knew the truth and hence she died in a mystery helicopter crash some months later.
<b>"Prekshya sarkar was the only one to survive against the wish of the architects of the murder plan. Later, she, too, was taken to Rara Lake in a conspiratorial way and plunged into the lake along with the helicopter," </b>Shanta says.
It appears from her claims that Princess Prekshya had demanded her husband's share of royal property, which had displeased Gyanendra. So who could unravel the truth? "<b>The helicopter pilot survives, all the people following the orders survive. Only Prekshya sarkar and her helpers die. Can this happen if there's no conspiracy?"</b> We can now look forward to anti-monarchists, who have grabbed control of Singha Durbar, going after the pilot -- if he is still alive.
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pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta | New Delhi
Queen mother's maid exposes 'truth' behind regicide, claims cover-up
With the monarchy virtually abolished and King Gyanendra stripped of all powers and privileges, a concerted effort is being made to expose skeletons in Nepal's royal cupboard with the explicit purpose of discrediting Narayanhity Palace.
For starters, 'investigative reporters' are trying to provoke a fresh inquiry into the night of the long knives on June 1, 2001 when King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, princes and princesses were slaughtered. King Gyanendra came to power after that massacre.
According to eyewitness accounts and an official inquiry, Crown Prince Dipendra, high on drugs and alcohol, had slaughtered his parents and siblings, and then turned the gun on himself, that fatal evening. Whispered gossip in the bazaars of Kathmandu was more colourful than the anodyne official version, but nobody dared raise uncomfortable questions, least of all in media.
That silence could soon become a thing of the past. A new book on the royal massacre, Rakta Kunda (The Massacre), written by Nepalese journalist Krishna Abiral, raises questions that are bound to provide ammunition to those who want to embarrass King Gyanendra and paint him as a tyrant.
Rakta Kunda tells the story of the massacre as narrated by 'Shanta', Queen Mother Ratna's personal maid and one of the few witnesses who survived the ghastly bloodletting. Shanta's husband, Trilochan Acharya, an employee of the palace, was killed in the shootout.
If the author, who describes Rakta Kunda as a "historical novel", and the former royal maid are to be believed, it was not Crown Prince Dipendra who spilled royal blood on June 1, 2001. According to the book, "two men masked as Crown Prince Dipendra fired the shots that led to the massacre".
The book describes Dipendra as "a man who was killed conspiratorially (and then) called a murderer". Apart from this startling claim, the author also asserts that "King Mahendra didn't die of a heart attack; he committed suicide".
An entire chapter of Rakta Kunda has been translated into English and put out on the Internet. Kantipur, Nepal's most popular daily, has published excerpts from the book, reflecting the changed times and the fall of the once all-powerful palace.
Questioning the official inquiry's finding, as also the statement of eyewitnesses, that Dipendra was high on hashish and alcohol, the book says, "Indeed, all the blame for the incident was put on Dipendra's head. The probe commission formed to investigate the incident, too, instead of making a neutral investigation, said Dipendra was guilty... He was projected as a hashish addict. But it's all a show. In the end, what more can you expect from those who just follow orders?"
For evidence, the author says, "The fact that no evidence of hashish was found in the stub of the cigarette, which Dipendra was said to have smoked before the incident, proves this... Like what Shanta didi says, the police lab report does say, 'no trace of narcotics was found in the cigarette stub'."
Shanta didi says this and a lot more. For instance, "Another thing is, (the) investigation report says Dipendra committed suicide after killing everybody.... You think yourself - is it possible to commit suicide with a machine gun? To commit suicide with a machine gun one has to shoot oneself under the chin by pulling the trigger with the toe? But Dipendra was shot in the chest. So doesn't it become clear that he was shot by somebody else?"
The former royal maid is most dismissive of the statement by Kumar Gorakh Shamshere Rana, whose wife and King Birendra's daughter, Shruti, was among the victims, that "it was, in fact, Dipendra who fired the shots". The book quotes Shanta as saying, "I don't know why Gorakh said so. But I think he was confused. He said so because he thought the man wearing the mask was Dipendra. I think he got confused or he said what he was told to say."
Waving away Gorakh's statement, she insists, "The fact that three different kinds of machinegun bullets were found at the incident site also contradicts this. It is impossible for a person to fire from three machineguns at the same time. I am very sure that others wearing Dipendra's mask had fired the shots... The conclusion that Dipendra committed suicide is a plain lie. I will tell you the truth. Murderers wearing masks had used all the three machineguns found at the incident site. Dipendra sarkar only had a Glok pistol. That too he wasn't carrying that day."
Shanta has raised a point that official investigators have never been able to answer convincingly. "How is it possible that Gorakh and Shruti... were hit but miraculously, Dr Rajeeb (royal family physician) and Paras (son of King Gyanendra) who were present in the same room escaped without a scratch? Nothing happened to Paras sarkar, who was alongside Birendra sarkar, Shruti sarkar and Gorakh Shumshere. Dipendra sarkar spared Paras sarkar just because he said, 'Dada, it's just us here.' Does something like that actually happen? All a show..."
And then the twist in the royal maid's tale: Princess Prekshya, sister of Queen Komal and widow of Dhirendra Shah, younger brother of King Birendra who also died in the massacre, knew the truth and hence she died in a mystery helicopter crash some months later.
<b>"Prekshya sarkar was the only one to survive against the wish of the architects of the murder plan. Later, she, too, was taken to Rara Lake in a conspiratorial way and plunged into the lake along with the helicopter," </b>Shanta says.
It appears from her claims that Princess Prekshya had demanded her husband's share of royal property, which had displeased Gyanendra. So who could unravel the truth? "<b>The helicopter pilot survives, all the people following the orders survive. Only Prekshya sarkar and her helpers die. Can this happen if there's no conspiracy?"</b> We can now look forward to anti-monarchists, who have grabbed control of Singha Durbar, going after the pilot -- if he is still alive.
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