Impulse Or Intrigue

It was around 7.30 pm on June 1 that members of the royal Nepal family began arrivingat the Narayanhiti Palace for attending the customary Friday dinner King Birendra BirBikram Shah hosted for his clan. Among the first to arrive at the palace was King Birendra’suncle, Maheshwar Kumar Singh. He sauntered into the billiards room, where the family tooktheir pre-dinner drinks.

The only person present in the billiards room then was Crown Prince Dipendra. SaysKumar Singh: “Dipendra asked me to join him for a drink. I wanted to wait until I hadgreeted Queen Mother Ratna. But he insisted and so I had a small one.”
Till then there was nothing to suggest that Prince Dipendra was emotionally distraught.Gradually, as minutes fleeted by, more guests arrived, though King Birendra and his wife,Queen Aishwarya, hadn’t yet entered the room. More drinks were consumed but KumarSingh says the evening was scarcely bacchanalian. A little later he left to pay obeisanceto Queen Mother Ratna. (King Birendra was with her then.)

Either Dipendra gulped his drinks fast—or different people with varyingperceptions have contrasting memories of the evening. For instance, when Dr Rajiv Shahi,son-in-law of the late Prince Dhirendra (King Birendra’s youngest brother) joined thesoiree, Dipendra was already drunk.

Recalls Shahi: “He was starting to stagger and slur. He said he was intoxicated,so we—Prince Paras, Niranjan (King Birendra’s youngest son) and I—took himup to his quarters.” The time then was 8.40 pm.

Moments later, Kumar Singh returned to the billiards room and rejoined the garrulousgaggle of royals. The King, too, walked in and stood in a group comprising Kumar Singh,Kumar Khadka, husband of the late Princess Shobha, and Prince Dhirendra. They werechatting and sipping their drinks, oblivious of what awaited them.

There are disagreements about the precise time, but it was around 9 pm that horrorstrode through the garden door. “I heard a noise,” recalls Kumar Singh. “Ilooked from the corner of my eye and saw Prince Dipendra in fatigues with an automaticweapon. He fired a single shot at the roof, then sprayed bullets in an arc. The kingstarted to sag but I was too stunned to do anything.” Prince Dipendra, then, left theroom.

Shahi rushed over to the monarch, lying near the snooker table. “I pressed my coatagainst a neck wound to stem the bleeding, and His Majesty told me that he’d alsobeen shot in the stomach. I told him the neck wound needed my immediate attention,”says Shahi.

But Dipendra was soon back, holding yet another weapon, either an M16 assault rifle ora Heckler & Koch MP5. “My father-in-law (Dhirendra) tried to stop him,” saysShahi, “and he was shot in the stomach, the crown prince shot his uncle, aunt, sisterand brother-in-law. He was wild.” Shahi was still crouched by the king, and headvised another victim, Gorakh Kumar, to lie down as he had serious bullet wounds. Hiswife, Princess Shruti (King Birendra’s daughter), came over to help him. Dipendrawent out of the room again, only to return almost immediately. “He shot the kingagain, Shruti and Princess Shobha (the king’s sister),” recalls Shahi.

Kumar Singh, meanwhile, hid behind a sofa with Prince Paras Shah and some female royalmembers, mostly minor. “I couldn’t see anything but I could hear Paras saying‘no brother, no brother’.” Shahi also praised the role of Prince Paras, theNepali public’s favourite choice as the gunman. “If it hadn’t been forParas, many more would have died.”

The next carnage was in the garden. On hearing the shots, Queen Aishwarya rushed frominside the palace and entered the billiards room. She then followed Dipendra outside,apparently to remonstrate with him. The prince trained his gun at her; his brother,23-year-old Prince Niranjan, tried to intervene. “The prince leapt in front of hismother,” said Shahi, “and they both got shot. Then Dipendra killedhimself.” Other witnesses say the prince pumped several bullets into his body andthen head.
“The room was full of screams and moans, I started yelling for help.... That night atthe hospital was terrible,” says Shahi, “I don’t know what motivated him todo this. But it was Crown Prince Dipendra. It doesn’t matter who you are. Anyone whotouches the king is a murderer.”

Kumar Singh, ever the gentleman even in shock and mourning, says more sadly: “Ican’t believe I have to say this but it was no other than one man who carried thisout, and it saddens me to say it, but it was Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah.”
These eyewitness accounts show there were no arguments over Dipendra’s marriageplans, and that he picked the assault rifles for reasons as yet unfathomable.