20 years on, Royal Massacre still shrouded in mystery

I remained at the palace as an under secretary for eight years.

King Birendra Shah and his family members were shot dead at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace twenty years ago on June 1, 2001. 

Along with the then King Birendra Shah,  his wife queen Aishwarya Shah, his two sons-- Crown Prince Dipendra Shah and Prince Nirajan Shah, his daughter  princess Shruti and other seven  royal family members were assassinated. 

At around 11 PM that night, someone called me and whispered, “Do you know what happened? Shooting occurred. King [Birendra Shah] and many others are no more.”

I called the chief secretary. He said that he had also heard, however, he could not confirm the macabre massacre. 

Next day, we reached the Army Hospital in Chhauni, Kathmandu where the injured royal family members were taken for treatment. I met Kumar Maheshwar Singh, a son-in-law of King Tribhuvan Shah. While asked about the incident, he said that it was Crown Prince Dipendra who opened the fire. I also inquired whether post mortems of the mortal remains were carried out. Singh, however, said that no autopsy was conducted following the order from queen mother Ratna Shah. He said the post mortem test of the royal members was not done as he quoted the queen mother. 

How was the inquiry committee formed?

A few days after the massacre, King Gyanendra formed an inquiry committee under the chairmanship of incumbent Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya. Initially the panel comprised the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Taranath Ranabhat and Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the main opposition. Nepal, however, refused to remain in the committee citing his party’s decision not to allow him to join the panel. 

After a request from Chief Justice Upadhyay, I agreed to be a part of the inquiry panel. 

How did the committee work? 

The composition of the committee itself was made in such a way that it could only  submit a report on what seemed to have happened in the incident. Who was behind the bloodbath was rarely considered. 

We took statements from the doctors, other people at the hospital, ADCs deployed, then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and other royal family members including Komal Shah, the wife of former King Gynendra Shah. 

During the inquiry, I wanted the culprit to be found, so did people. They still want to. I can't say if the Chief Justice and the Speaker had been directed by the palace, but they both seemed ‘not to further escalate things’ amid the hour of national mourning. I realized that they were not focused on finding new things, but were only trying to fulfill the formalities. Upadhyay is no longer with us, Madhav Nepal did not join in the committee. The lone living member of the committee is then Speaker Ranabhat. 

I proposed to the Chief Justice to ask for call details of Crown Prince Dipendra from the telecom. The call detail was retrieved. It was revealed that the prince had frequent calls with Devyani Rana. 

Dipendra was convicted, however, many questions remain unanswered

Everyone blamed Dipendra for the assasination. I was the only member of the committee who had worked at the palace and known a little more about Dipendra's nature. As per my observations, Dipendra was not like that. 

(Based on the conversation with Ratopati)

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