The royal palace today said Nepal's new king Gyanendra wants to bring thetruth behind the June 1 palace massacre before the public at the earliest evenas media reports said here that the findings of the high-level panel probing theincident was unlikely to be made public till Monday.
"His majesty wants to bring the truth behind the massacre before thepublic at the earliest. That is why he gave only three days time to the inquirycommittee. The four days extension was given on the panel's request," apalace spokesman told PTI today.
He said king Gyanendra was not in favour of any delay in making the findingspublic on account of the state mourning as reported in a section of the media.Had it been the case, the panel's deadline would have been extended till Saturday,when the state mourning ends, the spokesman said.
Advertisement
The two-member panel, headed by chief justice Keshab Prasad Upadhyaya, isscheduled to submit its report to the king tomorrow, after a four day extensiongiven to it on Sunday to collect forensic and medical reports.
However, leading English language daily 'The Kathmandu Post', quoting sourcessaid, most probably the report is not going to be made public before theceremony marking the 13th day rituals of king Birendra on Saturday and since Sundayis a public holiday, it is likely that it will be made public only on Monday.
The late king's 13th day ritual, which was scheduled to take place today, hasbeen postponed and will take place alongwith that of his son Dipendra, as Wednesdayis considered inauspicious in Nepal, the palace spokesman said.
Advertisement
According to committee sources, the report, in its final stage ofpreparation, is being typed.
Meanwhile, the Nepalese weekly 'Jan Aastha' claimed that fingerprint tests onthe weapons used in the massacre have proved Dipendra's role in the incident.
The superintendent of police of the central police science laboratory Dumer Limbo,it claimed, has certified that the fingerprints found on the weapons used in thekillings belonged to Dipendra.
Quoting army sources, the weekly claimed that Dipendra had used US-made M-16assault rifle and Austria made MP-5 pistol and fired 90 rounds on his relativeson the fateful Friday night.
Dipendra along with his parents had called on the Himalayan kingdom's chiefpriest Keshari Raj Pandey hours before the massacre and he looked sullen, itsaid, adding Pandey has denied that he had objected to the royals post-mortem onreligious grounds.
Meanwhile, 'The Kathmandu Post' said the probe panel was trying to gatherinformation from the last 10 people the late king had conversation with on hismobile phone.
The contact addresses of these 10 people were obtained from the memory chipof the late king's mobile phone, it said.
In the meantime, police were reviewing the security arrangements in thecapital city ahead of the scheduled submission of the panel's report and theeleventh day rituals of late crown prince Dipendra tomorrow, superintendent ofpolice Sagar Thapalia told PTI.
