Marriage Was Motive for Nepalese Royal Massacre: Prince Paras

June 17, 2001 - 0:0
KATHMANDU Crown Prince Dipendra argued with his parents over his plans to marry his girlfriend Devyani Rana before shooting them, the full version of the official report into Nepal's royal massacre revealed Saturday. Since Dipendra gunned down king Birendra and eight other members of the royal family on June 1, there has been speculation that a row over his marriage plans triggered the killings, AFP reported. His parents were said to object to Rana, who has a Nepali father and an Indian mother. Prince Paras, son of the new King Gyanendra, brother of Birendra, said marriage was the motive for the massacre. "As far as I am concerned, the motive was the marriage. The issue came up at a birthday celebration last year," Paras told the commission. "This must be the main cause." "Whatever happened I always agreed with what my brother (Dipendra) ordered," he said. But he said Princess Shruti and her husband, as well as other female cousins, were against the marriage. He added that the night of the shootings, Dipendra had told him the issue of the marriage had again been raised. "I had talked about the marriage with Muma (queen Aishwarya) and Afumuma (the queen mother) but both said no. I'll talk with Buba (king Birendra) on Sunday during an audience. I will talk about the issue," Paras quoted Dipendra as saying. This conversation took place between 7.40 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dipendra had been drinking neat shots of whisky, but appeared to have still been acting normally. "He seemed to be drunk but was in a very good mood," Paras told the commission. "We never thought this would happen." When asked how Dipendra died, Paras said: "I heard that my brother (Dipendra) shot himself at the bridge." The report also talks about the close relationship that Dipendra and Rana enjoyed. They had been dating for seven to nine years, according to Dipendra's aide-de-camp, Raju Kumar Karki, who was on leave on the night of the shootings. "Devyani is Sarkar's (Dipendra's) girlfriend ... the relationship has been continuing since the last seven to nine years," he said. He said that Dipendra used to bring Rana to the palace. "The first time was probably two years ago," he told the commission. A friend of Dipendra's, Supriya Shah, who he is believed to have dated at school, told the commission: "I had talked with the then crown prince over the phone that day at around 11.09 a.m., but we did not talk about anything special ... We talked normally and he said that he would call me that night. But he didn't call." The two-member commission was set up by King Gyanendra to investigate the killings. It made its report public on Thursday, but revealed more details in a 140-page report posted on the Internet.