Dipendra did it: report

KATHMANDU, JUNE 14. The official probe into Nepal's palace massacre tonight held the late King Dipendra `solely' responsible for the killing of his father Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and seven other royals and said he spoke to his girlfriend, Ms. Devyani Rana thrice on mobile phone shortly before the shooting spree.

The two-member probe panel, set up by King Gyanendra, in its report made public, said a `drunk' Dipendra in army fatigues fired indiscriminately at the royal family members who were relaxing in the billiard room of Narayan Hiti Palace after dinner on June 1, echoing the eyewitness and other accounts which most Nepalese refuse to buy. The panel, headed by Chief Justice Keshab Prasad Upadhyaya, did not say whether Dipendra, who later died in hospital, had shot himself as claimed by an eyewitness and some royal relatives.

The report, released by the Parliament Speaker, Mr Taranath Rana Bhat, a member of the panel, at a televised press conference, said Dipendra shot his father Birendra first, then his mother followed by the other royals.

Coming in the backdrop of heightened security across Nepal rocked by widespread violence in the wake of the massacre, the report said Dipendra had ``consumed alcohol and smoked cigarettes laced with opium before he walked into the billiard room and gunned the royals.''

Before carrying out the killings, Dipendra had made three calls from his mobile telephone to Ms. Devyani whom he wanted to marry but his mother was said to be opposed to it.

In his last call to Ms. Devyani, Dipendra told her, ``I am now about to sleep. Good night. We will talk tomorrow.''

The weapons used by Dipendra including a nine Mm sub-machine gun, a 12-bore French gun, 5.56-calibre rifle were displayed at the press conference.

The report did not indicate the motive behind the killings.

The 200-page report said Ms. Devyani in her telephonic tape- recorded interview to Nepal's Envoy to India, Mr. B.B. Thapa, spoke of ``a close relationship with Dipendra.'' The taped conservation was used as evidence by the panel.

Her parents told the committee that there was contact between the Dipendra and Ms. Devyani. However, Devyani, in her twenties, refused to disclose the details of her conversation with Dipendra saying that ``they were matters concerning her personal affair and she did not want to say anything about them,'' it said.

The report said during the visit of the site, the team found brain tissues, a few teeth and jaws, red `tika', two ear pins, broken pieces of red glass bangles and blood stains scattered here and there at the place where the queen was shot.

It said that no cartridge cases were found at the massacre site other than those used by Dipendra.

US warns Maoists `on roll'

The `US Ambassador to Nepal, Mr. Ralph Frank has warned that anti-Indian, anti-American and pro-China Marxists are `on a roll' in the Himalayan Kingdom after the palace massacre. Armed Maoist guerrillas are advancing with ``no visible opposition in the rural areas'' and trying to exploit the vacuum left by the murdered royals, Mr. Frank told the Washington Times.

``The Maoists are on a roll. They have no viable opposition in the rural areas. The Government has either been forced out or withdrawn in many areas,'' the Ambassador said.

- PTI

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