Nepal's Maoist govt may restrict Gyanendra's movement: Report

Kathmandu, March 02: Nepal Government may restrict the movement of deposed king Gyanendra in the country, with growing concern among the Maoist leadership that the former ruler was seeking support to restore the monarchy by pushing the case of his grandson as the “baby king”, a news report said on Monday.

The 62-year-old Gyanendra is on a week-long trip to India where he attended the wedding of his relatives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The former monarch, who was deposed last May, is likely to meet India's top leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his visit.

Nepal's Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai yesterday claimed for the third day in a row that Gyanendra had gone to India with a plan to make his grandson Hridayendra the “baby King” so as to restore the 240-year-old monarchy, which was abolished last May.

According to a Telegraph Nepal online report, which quoted the vernacular Sanghu Weekly, the Maoist-led government may be planning to put Gyanendra behind the bars the moment he lands in Kathmandu from the Indian tour.

The Nepali tabloid, quoting sources close to the Prime Minister's official residence, stated that the government will summon the former monarch, who has been at the centre of many conspiracy theories linking him to the massacre on June 1, 2001, as soon as he returns home after his private trip to India.

The Prachanda-led government has decided to form a high-level panel to re-investigate the 2001 massacre of the then king Birendra and his family at Narayanhiti Palace.

"The Government is planning to summon the last king over his decisions to demolish the Tribhuwan Sadan in the Narayanhiti Royal Place where the members of royalties were brutally murdered on that fateful evening," the report said.

A probe panel set up by the then government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had blamed the then crown prince Dipendra, who was allegedly fuelled by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, for the killings on June 1, 2001.

However, the validity of the report has been widely questioned as no post-mortem of the massacre was carried out at that time. Gyanendra was at the centre of many conspiracy theories linking him to the massacre in which his popular older brother Birendra was slaughtered. That massacre was what led Gyanendra to ascend the throne.

Accusing Gyanendra of "destroying the proofs" of the royal massacre, Prime Minister Prachanda on Thursday had pledged to probe the entire episode to unearth the "inside story".

courtesy: zeenews.com