Nepalese Royal Massacre - Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy Theories

Many Nepalese people are skeptical of the official report that the then Crown Prince Dipendra carried out the murder. King Birendra and his son Dipendra were very popular and well respected by the Nepalese population. Subsequently, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the chairman of the Nepalese Maoist Party, in a public gathering claimed that the massacre was planned by the Indian intelligence agency RAW or the American CIA. Promoters of these ideas allege Gyanendra had a hand in the massacre so that he could assume the throne himself. His ascension to the throne would only be possible if both of his nephews Dipendra and Nirajan were eliminated. Moreover, Gyanendra and specially his son Prince Paras were grossly unpopular with the public. On that fateful day he was out of town (in Pokhara) while rest of the royals were attending a dinner function. His wife Komal, Paras and daughter Prerana were in the room at the royal palace during the massacre. While the entire families of Birendra and Dipendra were wiped out, nobody amongst Gyanendra's family died; his son escaped with slight injuries, His wife sustained a life threatening bullet wound but survived.

Despite the fact that two survivors have publicly confirmed that Dipendra did the shooting, as was documented in a BBC documentary, many Nepali people still consider it a mystery. After the monarchy was abolished through a populist uprising there have been several claims refuting the official report among them is a recent book published in Nepal named Raktakunda recounting the massacre. It looks at the incident through the eyes of one of the surviving witnesses, Queen Mother Ratna's personal maid, identified in the book as Shanta. The book, which the author says is a "historical novel", posits that two men masked as Crown Prince Dipendra fired the shots that led to the massacre. Shanta's husband, Trilochan Acharya, also a royal palace employee, was killed along with 10 royal family members, including the entire family of King Birendra. In addition to details of the royal massacre, Shanta alleged many other cover-ups by the royal family, including a claim that the previous king King Mahendra committed suicide.

A Nepalese soldier claiming to be an eyewitness to the tragedy has said Crown Prince Dipendra, blamed for the ghastly act, was killed before the rest of his family members on the fateful Friday night. Dipendra was killed on 1 June at the Royal palace before his father King Birendra and mother Queen Aishwarya died of gun shots during a dinner party, Lal Bahadur Lamteri told Nepali language newspaper Naya Patrika. The paper also questioned the official probe commission's report holding Dipendra responsible for the killings. Most of the Nepalese people also do not back the official version and believe that there was a conspiracy involved to eliminate the royal family following which the last King Gyanendra succeeded his brother Birendra to the throne. Lamteri, a junior army staff deputed at the Narayanhiti Palace during the period, gave claims to Naya Patrika that Paras, son of now ousted King Gyanendra and cousin brother of Dipendra, came to the palace dinner party that night accompanied by a person wearing a Dipendra look-alike mask, who shot Dipendra dead before other royal family members were killed.

Supriya Shah, a schooltime friend of prince Dipendra whom he had courted, said 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."