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Regular-article-logo Friday, 23 May 2025

PROBE PANEL STEPS INTO NEPAL PALACE 

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FROM PROBIR PRAMANIK Published 08.06.01, 12:00 AM
Kathmandu, June 8 :    Kathmandu, June 8:  A week after the massacre, a two-member team entered Narayan Hity palace today to uncover the truth about the killings. The probe committee, which was given access to Dipendra's residential quarters, has no parallel in palace history. It met at the Parliament Secretariat in the morning. Official sources in the secretariat later said: 'The committee, after the meeting today, entered the palace to access the venue of the Friday night fury. It interviewed palace staff members and other army personnel present within the palace complex on the night of the massacre. It also examined the scene of the royal carnage.' However, the sources did not specify if any members of the royal family were questioned. The terms of reference for the probe have been laid down by King Gyanendra, who has given sweeping powers to the committee. The panel has not only been allowed access into the palace, but will also get to interview the surviving royals. But with two eyewitness accounts holding Dipendra responsible for the regicide already splashed in the media, the delayed probe proceeding have found no takers among Nepalese subjects. Supreme Court chief justice Keshav Prasad Upadhaya, who is heading the probe, said media reports and eyewitness accounts would not affect the findings. 'Media reports or eyewitness accounts will have no bearing on the probe which we will try to complete within the stipulated time frame of three days. The committee is expected to submit its report on the findings by Monday. If needed, we will work round the clock,' he told reporters here this morning. The team will inspect the shooting site, interview survivors and conduct ballistic tests before submitting its report. The King has promised to make the report public. The Speaker of the Lower House of Nepal's parliament, Taranath Ranabhatt of the ruling Nepali Congress, is the second member of the committee. Earlier in the day, Ranabhatt also asserted that the team would not be swayed by the account of Captain Rajiv Rai Shahi, a survivor of the massacre. 'We are not concerned about anything anybody says. The committee is an authentic body to probe the royal massacre and we will individually interview all the survivors and eyewitnesses.' At least two relatives have publicly accused Dipendra of the killing 14 members of the royal family, including father King Birendra and mother Queen Aishwarya, in drunken rage. Breaking its silence, the Girija Prasad Koirala-led government today for the first time came out openly against eyewitnesses going to the press with their version of the massacre before the probe committee has completed its findings. Foreign minister Chakra Bahadur Bastola said at a news conference: 'The eyewitnesses and survivors should not have gone to the press with their versions of the incident before the findings of the probe committee were made public. When the committee has been constituted to investigate the matter, why should they in their individual capacity go public before the probe reports are made public?' The probe committee was set up on Monday by King Gyanendra, who has found himself under a cloud of suspicion since Friday night's palace massacre. The new King promised his angry subjects that the panel would uncover the truth behind the killings. But the committee suffered a jolt when Opposition leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was named as one of its members, refused to be part of the probe. He alleged that the committee was unconstitutional as it had not been set up by the government. The committee was to have started its probe on Tuesday, but finally started work only today.    
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