Coming out with a new theory on the 2001 Palace Massacre, ex-Nepal king Gyanendra’s son Paras has claimed that crown prince Dipendra was not drunk during the killing and a thwarted major arms deal from which he had hoped to gain a “windfall” may be the “real trigger”.
Speaking for the first time about the killing of King Birendra and his entire family, Paras, who has been staying in Singapore since the abolition of monarchy in Nepal, also claimed that in 2000, Dipendra told him and some other palace youngsters that he wanted to “bring down the ‘ivory tower’”.
In an interview to The New Paper of Singapore, the former crown prince, said the royal family’s opposition to Dipendra’s affair with Devyani Rana was only one of the three reasons for the killing — the other two being craze for money and power.
According to 37-year-old Paras, his cousin’s advisors had been working on arms deal, which could have brought the crown prince a “ windfall”.